r. 










m\ I m 






■■■■ 









Mdrthd y/dtrous ^tearm 




-'4 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Lis \'^TT 7777. 
Chap Copynglit No. 



UNSTED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2010 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/schoolwithoutbooOOstea 



J^ 



School without books 



EDUCATIONAL HANDIWORK 



Home and Schoolroom, 



By Martha Watrous Stearns. ^ » 









REVIEW AND IIHIUI.D I'UBI.ISHINC COMPANY, 
liattle Creek, Midi. 



^^1 



4 



Entered accordins;- to Act of Congress, in the year 1897, by 

Review and Herald Publishing Co., 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



PREFACE. 



THE value of manual occupation for children has -ong been recognized. Yet on intro- "* 
ducing manual work into communities where it has never before been taught, many 

pupils are apt to consider it a degradation of school work proper, and maintain 
an injured air when asked to work a visible, material problem, by making a box ; as 
though their dignity was injured by descending to the handling of "base matter." But 
give them the same thing in abstract numbers, and they feel that they have something 
worthy of their thought. They would doubtless be surprised to be told that such senti- 
ments are the relics of paganism and bigotry ; yet to prove it so, we have only to study 
the education of the past. During the reign of paganism the masses were kept in ignorance; 
education was reserved for the few — the ])atrician class. All pagan religions were simply 
the most popular systems of philosophy, the prominent feature in them all being the 
exaltation of the spiritual, which they were pleased to conceive as immaterial, and the 
consequent degradation of the material. In Kingsley's " Hypatia " the central thought of 
pagan philosophy is expressed when she says of the soul: ''It is but a little time, a few 
days longer in this prison-house of our degradation, and each thing shall return to its own 
fountain. — the blood drop to the abysmal heart, and the water to the river, and the river 
to the shining sea, and the dewdrop which fell from heaven shall return to heaven again, 
shaking off the dust grains which held it down, thawed from the earth-frost which chained 
it here to herb and sward, upward and upward ever, through stars and suns, through gods 
and parents of gods, purer and purer through successive lives till it enters 'The Nothing' 
which is •The All,' and finds its liunie at last!" Poor dewdrop! it excites one's sympa- 
thy to think of its weary wanderings to find the joys of nothingness ! 

The prevailing sentiment could but debase and relegate to the attention of servants, 
everything that pertained to the care and sustenance of these " prison-houses of our degra- 
dation." Such religious sentiment naturally stamped the education of the day, leaving all 
manual occupations to the attention of the unlearned, as pertaining to base material, and 
giving an education to the upper classes which dealt almost wholly with the abstract, 
cultivating the imagination ; poetry, art, rhetoric, higher mathematics, and philosophy being 
the sum of the required knowledge of the day. The natural sciences were below par in 

[5 J 



6 PREFACE. 

the educational market. It was more poetical to think of the forests and streams as peopled 
with dryads and satyrs, and the very animals as inhabited by the gods, than to make a 
scientific study of them. 

The ecclesiastical era that followed did no more for education ; it changed only the name 
of the same system. During the Dark Ages we hear of demon sprites, and ghosts of the dead, 
and various good and bad fairies in possession of nature, instead of the dryads and satyrs 
of paganism, and in place of the soul's transmigration into nothing. Such theology created 
the Dark Ages, and anathematized its Galileos of science as it did its heretics of theology, 
and fed the minds of the people, as it did their souls, on the dry bones of formalism. As a 
result of its teaching, we have hymns that are but parallels of pagan philosophy ; as, — 

" In ever-changing orbit, our life doth quickly flee ; 
And gently doth absorb it, eternity's wide sea." 
And — 

" Oh when shall our spirits exchange, these cells of corruptible clay ? " 
Also — 

" Beyond the sowing and the reaping, Beyond the ever and the never, 
I shall be soon ! " 

How much more soul-satisfying are the ringing words of Paul: "What? know ye not 
that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?" and, "Ye are the temple of the living 
God," than the pagan's thought of our "prison-house of degradation," or the theologian's 
"cells of corruptible clay." And again Paul says: "This we commanded you, that if any 
would not work, neither should he eat." 

The Christian's Divinity could, even after his resurrection, stoop to prepare such 
necessities with his own hands for some hungry, breakfastless fishermen ! Isaiah gives us 
no uncertain sound as to the future home of God's people — he locates it in the "new 
earth," and says of them, "They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall 
plant vinej'ards, and eat the fruit of them." 

A place evidently not beyond "sowing and reaping," and of much more substantial 
material than the poor, little, wandering dewdrop found in "The Nothing" which is 
"The All," and of more definite terra firma, than the theologian's "beyond the ever and 
the never." 

Thanks be to God ! the true Christian religion is a tangible religion, built on the 
"Rock Christ Jesus," and it gives to those who will take it, material comfort in ^this world, 
and the promise of material joys in a future material home. Such religion elevates the 
handiwork of God, and points us to science as one of God's true teachers, because it opens 
our eyes to the wonders of his work, in which he has expressed his character. 

True education will ever lead us to God through the things he has made. "For the 
invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by 
the thinsis that are made." M. W. S. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. PAGE 

Suggestions Regarding the Application of the Work . . • 17 

CHAPTER n. 
How It Happened to Be . . . . . • - 20 

CHAPTER ni. 
Pine L,og University ........ 27 

CHAPTER IV. 
Under a Mountain ........ 39 

CHAPTER V. 
The Opening of the University . . . . . -51 

CHAPTER VI. 
Iron Pyrites, Regular System ...... 56 

CHAPTER VII. 

Galenite, Regular System . . . . . - -69 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Barytes, Rhombic System ....... 77 

CHAPTER IX. 
Crystallized Sugar, Monoclinic System . . . . -83 

CHAPTER X. 
Apophyllite, Tetragonal Svstesi ..... 90 

[71 



8 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XL 

Zircon, Tetragoxal Svsteji •••.... 98 

CHAPTER Xn. 

Tourmalin, Hexagonal System . . . . . . m 

CHAPTER XHI. 

Muscovite, Rhombic System •■..... 123 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Beryl, Hexagonal System . . . . . . i^i 

CHAPTER XV. 
Amethyst, Hexagonal System . . . . . .136 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Selenite, Monoclinic System ••.... 147 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Iceland Spar, Rhombohedral System . . . , -155 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Iron and Garnet, Regular System . . . . 161 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Calcite, Rhombohedral Sy.stem . . . . , .169 

CHAPTER XX. 

A Stalactite . . . . . . . .177 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Stilbite, Rhombic System ....... 1S5 




o 
u 

Oi 

z 

a 
o 

Of 

3 
O 

z 

S 






o 
z 

<c 
f- 
t/) 

a 
o 

a 
o 

£ 

u 



o 
z 

> 

< 

LL 

o 

t/) 
u 
-] 
a 
c 
< 
<0 



z 

> 

o 

-I 
a 

H 

u 
1^ 

<; 



INTRODUCTION, 



R SYSTEM of manual education can onl}- approach perfection as 
it is based on the teachings of the only perfect Teacher. One 
of the greatest lessons ever taught, he gave from the mountain- 
side, his text — the things he saw; the birds above him, the lilies at 
his feet, b_v which he taught things not seen — the new education — 
is not newer than the old, old story, which was the Word made flesh,, 
so materialized that earth's children could grasp its fulness. In that 
mountainside lesson the Father's love and care over his greater chil- 
dren was made objective to them in the loving care they could see 
expressed for his lesser children — the birds and flowers. So he still 
makes objective his thoughts for us. His careful love for his 
children's needs has implanted in the nature of all what might be 
called the instinctive arts, the two great useful arts, building and 
weaving. From these, all the useful arts of the present are but 
outgrowths or elaborated accessories. The tj-pes of these arts he has 
shown us in the mineral and vegetable worlds. 

In a collection of the various systems of crystals, we can see 
every combination of architecture from a Greek temple to a Chinese 
pagoda. In combining their outlined forms, we can see every piece- 
of furniture from the throne of Solomon to the fifteen-dollar bedroom 
set of the Yankee "furniture man." We cannot go awa}- from the 
fundamental forms, whether we Ijuild a temple or a talkie, a throne 
or a three-legged stool! So in a variety of leaves are demonstrated 
the principles of weaving; we see the ribs and veins held together 

[9] 



lO INTRODUCTION. 

by a fine network representing the warp and woof. It matters not 
whether it is the coarse willow basket of a German peasant or the 
rich silk of a societj' belle, the principles of weaving are the same in 
both. Again, these two arts, building and weaving, are made objective 
to us either singly or in combination, in the work of our lesser 
brothers and sisters ; no point lace was ever woven Avith greater care 
than our little eight-legged brother of the garden, traces his lace work 
from bush to bush. No silk manufactory has ever produced softer, 
more beautiful texture than the cocoons of the silkworm, which art 
has been unable to substitute in the manufacture of silk. Nor could 
the finest basket-workers in Europe compete with the feather-dressed 
nest-makers who have wrought such marvels in their woven archi- 
tectural puzzles. 

The art of building has been demonstrated geometrically in mud, 
.sticks, stones, paper, and wax, by workers who have never .served any 
apprenticeship, except in Nature's workroom. In their structures, we 
catch glimpses of the principal types of architecture. The beaver's 
dome-shaped settlements have an air of the Byzantine about them, the 
pointed and arched structures of the white ant suggest the Gothic, 
while the white hexagonal columns of the honej'comb remind one of 
the Grecian style. 

Both men and animals express their development by their build- 
ing instincts. The history of every epoch can be read without words, 
in its works. Lowest in the scale of progress are the burrowing 
animals, such as the mole, tortoise, and rabbit, that construct their 
dwellings bj' excavation ; then the burrowing insects, — the spider, 
beetle, and ant ; the burrowing birds, which constru.ct their homes in 
the sand and clay ; and finall}^, burrowing men, like some of the 
tribes in the interior of Africa and the former cliff-dwellers of 
Colorado. Opposed to these are the animals who construct aerial 



INTRODUCTION. 1 1 

homes in the bushes and trees. Our first thought would suggest the 
birds as having a monopoly of this accomplishment, but the harvest- 
mice weave as creditable nests as the birds, and hang them from the 
bushes. 

The greater proportion of insects live in the trees and bushes and 
low plants, and there are not wanting men who also construct tree 
dwellings, like some natives of South America, and certain portions 
of Africa. The more civilized method of building on the ground, 
instead of above or below it, is illustrated b}- the beaver, white ant, 
turret-spider, ground-birds, and water-fowl, as well as by man. As 
we look at the wonders of architecture of the present, and realize that 
they are but the outgrowth of those first rudimentarj^ forms seen in 
nature ; and as we see the exquisite works of the loom produced now, 
and realize that they, too, are simply an elaboration of nature's 
methods, we cannot fail to see the value of these arts as an educational 
medium. 

Thus far there has been little practical form-making and form- 
weaving accomplished outside of the kindergarten. The children have 
outgrown it, it is supposed, as they have outgrown their short petti- 
coats ; but if there ever was a place where Froebel's " law of activity " 
should be recognized, it is in the primary grades, till they are old 
enough to attempt the wood sloyd. The use of pasteboard and straw as 
more difficult material to handle than the paper of the paper-folding and 
paper-weaving of the kindergarten, contains the desired means for 
calling into play the children's increased .ability ; for as the true 
spiritual education consists in a series of overcomings, so the true 
material education lies in presenting a series of interesting obstacles, 
the overcoming of which shall produce the desired development. 

Thus far the tendency has been to make these obstacles wholly 
intellectual, confined within the covers of a text-book, and the over- 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

coming lias been a matter of compulsion rather than of interest. 
Success depends on keeping up the correct balance between obstacle 
and interest. Such has been the thought in the preparation of these 
models. In their construction the attention is first called to the one 
true source of all designs, nature, a habit which if formed in this 
way will be applied in all their future work. The working-form is 
shown them, first in the cr_vstals themselves, as it impresses the 
natural thought of the form more deeply, and makes them feel that 
they are cop^'ing nature's thought, rather than human thought. 
The idea given is not that thev are to make a box like the box their 
teacher has made, but as she copied the geometrical foriu of the 
crystal, in a box, so they are to copy the crystal form in a box. They 
are charmed with its beaut}- ; then follow a series of questions, the 
answering of which describes the form geometricalh' and mineralog- 
ically. They are anxious to copv it at once, and the making of it 
necessitates the practise of whate\er knowledge of numbers they have 
acquired, besides giving them practical work in mechanical drawing, 
and hand skill in the manipulation of materials. 

They ha^•e already become accustomed to the geometrical forms 
in the gifts of their kindergarten. The_y now learn to make as well 
as to use them, and learn their origin, which is quite a surprise to the 
majority, their thought being that somehow nature has copied man's 
work, as one boy put it when an unusualh" perfect crj^stal form was 
shown him, " Did that grow wild ? " What a pity that a child could 
confuse nature's wonders with man's art ! The completed course of 
these models gives a familiarit}- with the common systems of crystals, 
an elementary knowledge of geometrical drawing and crj'Stallography, 
practical number work, and hand training, besides unconsciously 
teaching the spiritual truth, that the victor}- of achievement lies 
in overcomine. 



INTRODUCTION. 1 3 

Weaving, as representing all textile art, is combined with the 
pasteboard form-work, as its opposite. The pasteboard models have 
been developed in unyielding material, and the natural diiificulties 
attending its manipulation have been overcome. Now, in j-ielding 
material, the same form is developed with a different use, and a 
reverse of difficulties are met to overcome ; the pasteboard was com- 
paratively^ inflexible, the straw material is flexible, thus the education 
from handling both, represents the means, as opposed to the extremes. 

The neatness and care which this work requires, offer many 
opportunities to show nature's way of working. Thus, a little girl 
asks, "Must I make this box just as nice on the inside as on the 
outside?" "Here is a flower," replies the teacher; "this is our 
model ; pull it to pieces, and see if you find any wrong side." So 
the child is made to realize that nature has no concealed defects, no 
wrong sides to be covered up, and a lesson of truthfulness is inef- 
faceably made on the heart of the child, to be worked out in her 
character as in her basket. Again, manual work affords the teacher 
opportunities given in no other work, of cultivating refined tastes in 
her pupils, many of whom come from grades of society whose only 
ambition is to eat, drink, sleep, and labor therefor. The schoolroom 
has , long been looked to by various remodelers of society, as a field 
for action, and a true teacher will see in it a world full of possibili- 
ties ; for a school system extending over so large an area as the 
United States of America, gathers in its schoolroom, types of its own 
as varied as though produced by other nations, besides a generous 
conglomerate dropped into Uncle Sam's collection plate, b}- every 
civilized nation on the face of the earth. Out of all this raw and 
diverse material, the teacher is to amalgamate a schoolroom republic, 
plant a crop for the benefit of society, and develop the individual child 
for his individual life. The teacher that is to do all this, must be a 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

compound of all the virtues, well stocked with brains, and a good 
deal of a diplomat besides. 

As a matter of fact, she is more often a machine, employed by 
machines to manufacture macJiines ; not always willingly, perhaps, but 
because there is no opportunitj- to be anything else. Some form of 
educational handiwork presents this opportunity. It is the sesame by 
which she can find her way to the hearts, and get at the real life of 
the children, and through which she can exert a wonderful power in 
their lives. It offers to her a thread by which she can tug at least 
one end of the labor and capital tangle ; for every day that she makes 
labor and capital meet in the individual as thought, supplemented 
by execution, she places the two on a par in the estimation of her 
pupils, and so lessens the probability of their separation into classes 
in after life, for what meets in the individual will meet in the classes. 
Many school boards, however, as well as individual families, are so 
economical that the}- think the usual manual training outfits, " won't 
pay just for children." The visible returns for the outlay are not as 
great as the visible deficit in the school purse, therefoix they decide 
to economize their dollars by taking them out of the brains of the 
rising generation, which must continue to rise in the good old way, 
borrowing its brains from books, and then serving its destiny in 
educational automatism. Thus man}' teachers are thrown on their 
own resources if they wish to educate anything but the heads of their 
pupils. For them, as well as many families who feel the necessity of 
handiwork for the children, which can be provided without great 
expense, these informal lessons have been prepared ; not as unvarying 
forms, but as suggesting ways of helping the children to an all- 
round education of the head, heart, and hand ; and of developing in 
them that insight which — 

" Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons 
in stones, and good in everj-thing." — Shakespeare. 




Of 

o 
u. 

o 

z 

o 



A School W 



ITHOUT Books. 



I- 

SUGGESTIONS REGARDING THE APPLICATION OF 

THE WORK. 

WHENEVER possible, a good collection of natural crystals should 
be consulted for subject-matter. When access to these cannot 
be obtained, one can sometimes find excellent substitute speci- 
mens at the druggist's. The large, square, white, pyramidal crystal 
in the illustration on page 26, is crystalized alum obtained from a 
druggist. The crystalized sugar used as the suggestive form for the 
writing tablet, was the terminal crystal of a rock-candy string. 
Crystals of halite^ or common salt, would take the place of the 
iron pyrites when these could not be prociired, as they ver}^ often 
occur in perfect cubes. 

It is intended that the teacher should make the forms used as 
working-subjects, in mica, as illustrated in plates on pages 16 and 
38, and that after showing to the class the crystal-subject, the struct- 
ure be made plain by the glass models. Then the class should 
model the form in wax or soap like the illustration on page 44. This 
should be done by cutting the model out of the wax, the thought 
being that the form should be so perfectly seen in their minds, that 



1 8 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

thev are to see it as a perfect thing in the wax before they touch a 
finger to it, and then simply take their knives to cut away the super- 
fluous wax. Thev next regard the form in reference to its plane 
faces, which they draw on paper. This makes the working-drawing, 
which, put on cardboard and cut and folded together, produces the 
form in pasteboard. 

For children without previous kindergarten training, this would 
be too difiEcult. For them the form should be first modeled in clay ; 
then to obtain an idea of its plane faces, the form can be laid with 
cardboard or wooden tablets, and instead of drawing the form on paste- 
board to reproduce, the patterns accompanying this book ma^■ be laid 
on, and the form traced. 

When the}' can make them well in this manner, they can remake 
them in the way first suggested, changing the proportions somewhat, 
or developing in different material so the task will not prove irksome. 

The materials and instruments needed are, first, a good drawing- 
board, accurate ruler, graduated to the sixteenth of an inch, a book- 
binder's knife, well-sharpened scissors, compasses, an accurate square ; 
also a can of Denison's liquid glue and a jar of " parlor paste," 
unless the home-made paste is more easily procured, in which case it 
should be carefully strained before using, that it may be free from 
lumps. Strips of old muslin should be at hand for cutting bindings 
with which to glue the models together before covering with paper, as 
it makes them much stronger. 

The foundation for the boxes and heavier models, should be of 
light-weight " tar-board," as that does not warp as readily as the 
strawboard in common use for such purposes. If not obtainable, a 
thick white cardboard makes a good foundation but is more expen- 
sive. Tinted cardboards of three-ply thickness should be used for 
the linings of the boxes. For the coverings, the leatherettes and 



SUGGESTIONS REGARDING THE APPLICATION OF THE WORK. I9 

embossed papers are more suitable for the Heavier models, and the 
lighter weight coverings known as box papers, for the less substantial 
models. 

The weaving- material ma}' be either split palm-leaf, straw hat 
braid, the sweet grasses, or the thinly shaved, dyed woods, used by 
the Indians, and obtainable by sending to their reservations in north- 
ern Maine or Michigan. The other materials can be found at any 
hat factor}-, and the pasteboards and papers can usually be procured 
at any good printer's or bookbinder's. 

Always provide good tools and good materials for the children, 
tor they are the price that must be paid for good work. 



.II. 
HOW IT HAPPENED TO BE. 

IT was an odd advertisement that caught Miss Lovechild's eye as 
she scanned a Western paper — "Cranny Crag Cottage, Sooo feet 
altitude, 500 miles of views, hot springs and cold springs, a first- 
class, quiet, Rocky Mountain retreat for first-class, quiet people. 
Others need not apph' ! " 

" I wonder if I am first-class and quiet," she said, smiling, " and 
what proof I shall have to present of the same to satisfy my land- 
lady of the Cranu}^ Crag ; a /aiidlord could never have originated 
that 'ad.' I am positive that is just where I want to go for a three 
months' rest — ' a tired-out Eastern school-teacher who wants rest,' 
I '11 tell her ; that ought to be sufficient, I am sure." And it was, 
with the added fact that she winced not at the "first-class, quiet" 
prices, incidently thrown in as a part of the bargain. 

If society could be niineralogically classified, ]\Iiss Lovechild 
would have put the guests of the Crannj- Crag in the order known 
as conglomerate, as she studied with curiosity her presumably " first- 
class," quiet, fellow boarders. There was a decidedh' quiet, consump- 
tive-appearing, New England clergyman, wife, and child, who had 
" come for his health," the landlad}' said. She had an original 
method of taking on an explanatory appendix to her introductions, 
as she set her guests afloat on each other's acquaintance. Then 
there was the " mining man " who was not quiet in any acceptance 

of the term with which Miss Lovechild was familiar. "He's come 
[20] 




s 

o 

u. 



< 

m 
z 



> 

H 
to 

U 

o 
o 

3 
</3 



HOW IT HAPPENED TO BE. 23 

for his health, too, if he don't look it," announced the gracious Mrs. 
Hostess, smiling on her plethoric guest. " That 's a fact," he laughed, 
" if you mean my pecuniar}^ health, for I 've got some old mining 
interests here that needed looking up." And there was an Eastern 
manufacturer who was likewise looking the ground over with an eye 
to his " pecuniary health," and a Chicago " commercial man," also. 
The New York " business man " was there, too, and the Southern 
" do-nothing-in-particular " man ; the uneducated man with money, 
trying to polish himself up with travel, and the educated man with- 
out money, enjoying his brains I 

All had come, bringing some of their " heirs apparent," with the- 
intent of enjoying thenisekrs. These "heirs" soon appeared to be 
an epitome of everything that children should not be at a " first-class, . 
quiet. Rocky Mountain retreat." They monopolized the most desirable 
seats on the veranda, the cosiest nooks in the garden, ai-id the most 
comfortable hammocks at the most desirable times, and everj'body 
began to wonder what there was about this younger portion of the 
conglomerate that had impressed Mrs. Hostess, as being sufficient!}' 
quiet to admit them to such a ver}' " quiet, first-class " retreat ; but 
Mrs. Hostess was ver}^ positive that they ivere quiet children when 
she admitted them ; they merel\- illustrated the exhilarating effects of 
the delightful altitude ! She was obliged soon, however, to awake to 
the realization of the situation, for it became evident that if somebody 
did not do something soon, her "conglomerate" would resolve itself 
into its original parts, and the Cranny Crag would be a very " quiet, 
first-class " cottage, minus its guests ! 

"I say. Miss Lovechild ! " ejaculated Mrs. Hostess in despair, 
"you're a schoolmarm ; can't you think of some way to keep those 
young ones still ? " 



24 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

"That's my business nine months of the year, I admit," Miss 
Ivovechild said, smiling, " and I came up here to be awaj^ from it for 
three months." 

Poor Mrs. Hostess looked so discouraged that Miss Lovechild 
remorsefully added, " I will consider the question, however." 

" You 'd be doin' real good mission'ry work if you could do 
something' toward hushin' them up. The}' cut up worse than any 
heathen I ever heard of, and I don't believe but the rest of the folks 
would feel so grateful to you, thej;' would pan out a good collection 
for your time." 

" If I do anything for missionary work, however," laughed Miss 
Lovechild, " it will have to be gratis, and I don't care about anything 
else. My only object in coming here was to rest, but I will try to 
interest the children in doing something, if their friends will provide 
money for the materials." 

So it was that at the following dinner, everybody was electrified 
with the announcement, " A summer school for children will be 
opened in the picturesque, old log cabin on the cliff, a short distance 
from the house — for everybody who wishes to come, nobody else 
invited," Miss Lovechild stated, laughing, and she was immediately 
overwhelmed with the gratitude of all the fond papas and mamas, 
and more particularly of the people who Avere not papas and mamas. 
The children were ready for anything new, so were delighted at the 
idea of such a novel school, and could scarcely wait for the next 
morning to come. The papas and mamas assured Miss Lovechild, in 
private, that they had never known their children to be so noisy 
before, and were quite sure that all the}' needed was a little occupa- 
tion. With this. Miss Lovechild agreed perfectly, and Avondered they 
had not discovered it before. 




1/3 

o 

u. 



< 
z 



> 

(/) 

UJ 

o 
a 

'-0 



III. 
PINE LOG UNIVERSITY. 

MISS LOVECHILD had not long to wait at the old cabin the 
next daj^ till her prospective school appeared, coming up the 
trail from the Cranny Crag. 

First were the twins, Tod and Tad Westerly, the "mining man's" 
eldest. Could it have been so, any one would have said that Tod was 
the older. That being impossible. Tod was denominated as the " pri- 
mary" member of the two, and Tad, as. "secondary," was of no 
importance except as Tod's " supplement." Then came Guy Gumption 
— his father was the Eastern manufacturer ; with him was Frank 
Flashy who belonged to the " commercial man " from Chicago. Just 
behind was Gustave Goslowson, whose mother was Mrs. Hostess's 
Swedish cook ; then came the girls, three of them together, — Prudence 
Puritan, the very apple of her father's eye, who was the New England 
clergyman ; little Flossy Finery, the pet of the New York " business 
man ; " and little Esther Easygo, the family pride of the man from 
the South. "What an educational speculation I have on my hands!" 
sighed Miss Eovechild, as she watched them coming. " East, West, 
North, and South, labor and capital ; dear, dear ! I shall have minia- 
ture rebellions to quell and ' strikes ' to settle ! " 

"Here we are!" shouted Tod. "Yes, this is the place," added 
Tad, and the children hurried up to Miss Lovechild. 

" Are we going to be corralled in here ? " questioned Tod. 

[27] 



28 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

" That depends on how well you can help me arrange it," replied 
Miss Ivovechild. 

" O how lovely ! It looks just like the pictures of the Pilgrims' 
cabins in the old Indian days," said Prudence. 

" Wonder if the gold hunter who used to live here left any of 
his nuggets under the floor," laughed Frank Flashy, raising one end 
of an old plank. 

"Humph! he'd been a goose if he hadn't more sense than that; 
and I guess if he 'd any to take away with him, there 'd be a big 
shaft running here to-day, instead of that old prospect hole." " You 
ain't living in a wild-west story-book, you know," added Tad, under 
which high altitude logic, the young Chicagoan subsided. 

" Awful knotty pine logs you 've got out here," Guy remarked 
reflectively, as he tried to chip off a piece to whittle. " Father says 
your Western lumber isn't good for anything, anyhow." 

" Your father knows everything, I s'pose," rejoined Tod. 

" He knows enough to have one of the biggest furniture manu- 
factories back East," replied Guy, spicily. 

" O well, we don't pretend to make a point on lumber out here, 
do we Tad? unless it is prickly-pear and soapweed," and the boys 
laughed good naturedly. 

"Where are we going to sit?" inquired Miss Flossy (Fussy, the 
children sometimes called her), eying the rough pine boards, and 
then her pretty outing dress, fresh from New York. 

" You 'd better ask Guy to import some of that fine back-east 
furniture of his for your special benefit," suggested Tod. 

" That would be a fine idea," said the secondary member. 

"What are you fussing about? 'Sit on de' flo',' as they say 
down South," laughed Esther Easygo. " This makes me think of 
the cabins at home, anyway; the floor isn't too good for me," and 



PINE LOG UNIVERSITY. 29 

she plumped herself down in the doorway, while the others seated 
themselves on rocks in front of the cabin. 

" Well, I see you are good talkers," said Miss Lovechild, sitting 
down beside them. " Now I am wondering how much you are worth." 
The boys' hands all went into their pockets, for they thought of 
course she wanted money to fix up with. " No, I do not want money ; 
people with their pockets full are often worthless." 

All opened their eyes except Prudence ; she understood. " No, I 
want you to show me right now how much you are worth to make a 
pleasant class-room out of this, without bu3ang a thing, unless it is 
some nails. You may each give me your plan, and we will vote on 
the best. Come. Gustave, you have been quiet, and have not said a 
word yet, what do you think about things ? You shall give us your 
plan first." 

Gus blushed to the very roots of his white hair, and said, " If 
you please. Miss Lovechild, I would rather let the others do the 
planning, and I will help them with the work." 

" Very well, Gus, just as you say. Now who is going to give me 
the first plan?" asked Miss Lovechild. 

As she expected. Tod volunteered. " But," put in Guy, " I don't 
see how anybody can tell what is needed till you tell us what you 
are going to have us do." 

" Ah, I see you are worthy of your surname," laughed Miss 
Lovechild. " I wondered if any one would stop to ask that. Necessity is 
the mother of invention. Of course you must know what I am going 
to do before 3^ou can suggest a way of furnishing the room. I fancied 
that you all had as much book-work as you cared for through the 
school year, so I had planned to give your hands something to do, 
instead of tiring your heads out with more books. We are going to 
work in pasteboard, paper, and straw." 



30 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

"Then you will want plenty of table loom and good seats," 
said Guy. 

" That is right. But Tod was the first volunteer for a plan ; we 
will hear his, and then you may give us yours," replied Miss Love- 
child. 

"Our plan," said Tod, — he always spoke for his double, — "is 
cracker boxes on end for tables, and a log sawn up in foot lengths, 
for seats ; that would be cheap and easy." 

"Yes, Mrs. Hostess has got lots of empty boxes she would let 
us have I know," supplemented Tad. 

" Well, your plan is no good, if it is easy to fix. I would like to 
know how much work anybody could do balanced on a post." 

" It is n't voting time 3^et, Guy," gently suggested Miss Love- 
child ; " tell us your plan." 

" Well, I thought we could make use of those big cracks between 
the logs, and save time and work by slipping planks in them, long 
enough to reach across the room, for both benches and tables ; they 
would be firm to sit on and firm to work on. We could use a single 
plank for a seat, and place three close together, about three logs 
higher, for our table. I saw some planks back of the Cranny Crag 
that Mrs. Hostess had for tent floors one summer. If she would let 
us make them the right length, they would do finely." 

" Now for your plan, Frank," Miss Lovechild said. 

" Well, I don't take any stock in the boys' makeshifts," he replied. 
" In Chicago we don't do things by halves. I vote on having some 
respectable camp-chairs, and folding camp-tables for each of us. We 
can all afford it, if we each buy our own, and then we won't be 
bothered hunting up boards and filling our hands and our cloth- 
ing with slivers. " 

Miss Lovechild smiled, and said, "Well girls, what do you say?" 



PINE LOG UNIVERSITY. 3 1 

" I think hammocks are the nicest things to sit in ; they are so 
comfortable," remarked Esther Easygo. " We could take our work 
in our laps, you know, and the hammocks could be nicely hung from 
the rafters." 

"Lots of work 3'ou 'd do," laughed Guy. 

" Now Flossy, what have vou to say ? " asked Miss Lovechild. 

" O I don't care about the seats if they are not so rough as to 
get splinters into my clothes. I should think they might be covered 
with something. I don't like the hammock plan though, it crumples 
one's dress so to sit in one. I was thinking how pretty and pictur- 
esque we could make the room look bj- trimming it with the mountain 
cedar ; that old stone fireplace would look like a Christmas picture, 
festooned with evergreens." Even the children smiled, it was so like 
Flossy always to think of the " looks " of things. 

" And what have you to propose, Prudence ? " inquired Miss 
Eovechild. 

" Nothing about the seats, only I like Guy's plan best, because 
the tables would be firmer to work on, and they wouldn't cost any- 
thing. I think it would be nice, too, if they could be arranged so 
that we could see the pretty views out of the windows while we are 
at work. Then I was thinking how nice it would be if the boj^s 
would saw up a boxful of logs to burn in the fireplace cool mornings 
or when it rained. And I thought it would be neater if we had 
some white sand on the floor or pine needles, and it would not be so 
noisy either. We could almost imagine, then, that we were living in 
the days of our Pilgrim fathers, if only we had a crane and some 
andirons for our fireplace. Oh but I never thought of the rattle- 
snakes!" she exclaimed. "Do you suppose that building a fire would 
warm them up ? I have read that they live under the floors of these 
Western cabins." 



32 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

" I wish there were some here, I always wanted the fun of 
Tcilling one," said Tod ; " but they don't come up as far as this. 
High altitude does n't agree with their health ; they never leave the 
foot-hills, so you needn't worry, Prudence." "That's a fact," empha- 
sized Tad. " I never saw one off the plains at the foot of the moun- 
tains. It 's too cold for them up here." 

" But our meeting must come to order if we are going to vote," 
interrupted Miss Lovechild. "Whose plan of work shall we accept? 
Shall we sit on camp-chairs, planks, logs, or in hammocks? Write your 
ballots, and I will gather them up." " Ah, Guy wins, I see. The 
majoritv say, planks ; nevertheless, if Frank prefers his camp-chair and 
table, and Ksther her hammock, there is no reason why they should 
not have them since there is plenty of room. We can indulge our 
individual tastes since they interfere Avith no one else. Now what 
shall we call ourselves ? " 

" Chipmunk College," suggested the primary twin. " There are 
lots of them around here," explained the secondary. 

" Magpie Roost would not be bad either, and we chatter about 
as much as they do," Guy remarked. 

" But roost is n't dignified enough for a place of learning," 
objected Frank. " Gold Ledge Institute would sound better." 

" I thought we were coming here to work," Gus Goslowson 
picked up courage to say. "Why wouldn't Working Bees' Hall, be a 
good name ? " 

"You haven't heard my name yet," said Esther Easygo, as she 
industriously tried to pull the point of a prickly-pear from the toe of 
her low walking shoe; "if it's anything at all here, I reckon it's a 
Prickly-pear Plantation ! " EverA'body laughed. 

" I think I shall have to help you out with your name," said 
Miss Lovechild. " It strikes me that if we are anything at all. 



PINE LOG UNIVERSITY. ^ 33 

as Esther says, we are a university, because you see we represent 
all the American universe — North, South, East, and West. Then I 
think that the knowledge we get here will be of the universal sort, 
too. So I propose that we call ourselves, Pine Log University, and 
have the name painted on a strip of cloth, and put up with ever- 
green festoons, and over it a picture of Liberty or Uncle Sam, with 
North written over his head. South below him, on the right. East, and 
on the left. West, to help us remember that it takes them all to make 
America." 

"That's fine," acquiesced the children. "But you haven't told us 
Avhat yon are. Miss Lovechild." 

" O but I must keep that a secret. I am just an American." 

" Were your parents American, too ? " queried Prudence, with a 
New Englander's love for genealogy. 

" Suppose I should say no, you would not think I knew enough 
to teach a little girl whose fathers were Pilgrims, would you?" 
Prudence blushed. 

"I do not think it would make an atom of difference myself; 
but we must return to bu.siness. Guy, I appoint you and Gus 
as our carpenters. Prudence our housekeeper ; Esther shall look after 
our luxuries, Flossy our decorations ; Frank and the twins shall be 
our business agents if they will promise not to sink us in debt by 
their speculations. I shall expect our room to be in working order in 
two days, and you will all have your hands full. Now how would 
you like to walk home by the creek, near the hot springs ? " 

" That will be grand fun," the University voted. So as they left 
the cabin. Miss Lovechild took the trail down the cliff into the 
canyon where a very dashing, tearing, businesslike brook rushed 
along. Very much in a hurry, like the rest of the Western world, 
it did not stop to give much attention to the detail of its surround- 



34 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

ings, its only object being, as Tod put it in his Western phraseology, 
" to get a move on itself," and everything else that happened to be 
near it. Miss Lovechild thought, as its banks were washed and gullied 
m a most surprising manner for so small a stream. It could not 
claim so much as fourth cousinship to Tennyson's "brook;" for none 
but a well-regulated English brook could flow "on forever" in one 
channel, content with the pretty sentiments of life — reflecting forget- 
me-not banks and loitering around trout pools ! No, the rough-and- 
tumble Western brook never stops for' sentiment ; its business is gold 
washing, and to that end it tumbles on. 

"See here, children," said Miss Lovechild, "aren't j^ou glad you 
are not those stones in that little whirlpool ? What do you suppose 
would happen to you if you were? Do you dare get a few of those 
small stones out for us to look at. Tod ? " 

" That 's nothing," replied Tod. " Get you all you want, but you 
won't find any gold in them." 

" Well there are other interesting things in this world besides 
gold," Miss Lovechild rejoined with a smile. "Thank you, Tod," she 
said, as he placed a handful of dripping, water-worn stones in her 
hands. " Now go to the foot of that ledge of rock, and bring me a 
handful of the stones j^ou find there." 

" There 's nothing there though, but broken rock," he replied. 

"Well bring me that, then," she said. "Now," she continued, 
as Tod returned with a handful of rough, broken rock, "some one 
please tell me the difference between these stones." 

" The brook stones are smooth, and the others are rough and 
all corners," Guy answered. 

"Now throw the rough stones into the water and watch them; 
that little whirlpool bumps them together in a very unceremonious 
way, does it not? I fancy that if they could speak, they would all 



PINE LOG UNIVERSITY. 35 

be accusing each other of hurting everybody. Do you see what the 
trouble is ? " 

" Why, the water knocks them together," said. Prudence. 

" But it would not hurt if they had no corners," replied Miss 
Lovechild. " It is not easy for two round things to hurt each other. 
Take these round pebbles and bring two together however you will, 
hardly a pin's point of their surfaces touch; see? Where a family of 
stones have to live together, the brook very kindly rubs their corners 
off so they will not hurt each other. There is some hurting at first 
till they grow smooth ; but after that, they can have a very pleasant 
time. And there are other things besides stones that have corners 
sometimes, and they do not like to have them rubbed off, either; but 
if they will just think how beautifully smooth they are going to be 
by and by, perhaps it would not hurt quite as much. You see I 
had a reason for bringing you to the brook," said Miss Lovechild. 

" O you mean we are the stones," said Flossy ; and they all 
laughed. 

" Now we must hurry home for we have our hands full of work." 

" I must go to the hardware store for some nails, before I go 
home," said Guy. 

" I '11 get them for you," said Tod, " if you '11 tell me what you 
want ; I 've got to go anyway." 

" Well then, here are three cents ; " and Guy tossed the coppei's 
to Tod. " That will buy enough." 

"What on earth do I want of those? I ain't going to. buy 
postage-stamps am I ? " 

"Well, won't they buy nails as well?" replied Guy, not verj- 
pleasantly. 

" Not on this range, my tenderfoot. You don't suppose that peo- 
ple who have such big things as these mountains to look at all the 



36 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

time, deal in pennies, do you? No sir, we never want anything less 
than a nickle will buy. Keep your pennies till you go home where 
they deal in small wares," Tod said loftily. 

" Look out ! somebody 's losing a corner," said Miss Lovechild. 

" Dear ! dear ! " said Guy ; " I wish we could lose them all, so 
we would n't be bumping together so much. Yoii think we are some 
very sharp-cornered stones, don't you ? " 

" I think you can be beautifully smooth if you won't mind a 
little rubbing," said Miss Lovechild pleasantly. " As the room will 
not be read}', instead of our school to-morrow, do you think your 
father' would let us visit one of his mines, Tod ? We will understand 
our work better if we can." 

" O 3'es, father would be glad to show you down, and we would 
have a jolly time going down, too. How it will make the girls 
scream ! " and Tod laughed at the prospect. 

" How it won't make them scream," said Esther. 

"01 suppose we shall have plenty of chances to chip off cor- 
ners," interrupted Miss Lovechild ; " but don't let us do any more 
chipping to-day, or we shall have no room to begin school in. Now 
go, and see who will have the most work done." ^ 




to 

Of 

o 
u. 

a 
z 

2 
o 

u 



IV. 
UNDER A MOUNTAIN. 

THE father of the " double T's," as the children called Tod and 
Tad, was only too glad to help on the school scheme by inviting 
the members down his mine. So Pine Log University on foot, 
left the breakfast table for the shaft-house of the Twins' Claim. " Pa 
named it for us," said the double T's, as they climbed the trail, "as 
he opened it up on one of our birthdays." 

"My! it sounds like an Eastern factory," exclaimed Guy. 
"What makes all that noise?" 

The engine. My father don't run a hand bucket. This is the 
only one of his mines that he has n't an elevator in ; but he did n't 
think it would pay because it is n't worked all the time. It 's more 
fun going down in a bucket an3rway, especially where the shaft is 
inclined as it is here. You girls will be scared I suppose ; girls always 
are, and scream and jump, and that makes the bucket tip, and 
frightens them all the more." 

" What are all those little holes for, up the side of the mountain, 
one above another?" asked Frank. 

"O just prospect holes," explained the " primar}^ T." 

" They were following the float," supplemented the "secondary T." 

" For instance, suppose I pick up a piece of float like this," pick- 
ing up a rusty-looking piece of quartz. 

" But what do you call it float for ? " interrupted Frank. 

" Because it is loose rock broken off of some ledge higher up ; and 
as I was saying, when we find such a piece, we just hunt till we 

I39l 



40 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

find a ledge of the same kind of rock it came off of, if it 's good float; 
and then work it a little, to see if it is anj^ good. You see here they 
worked six ledges before they struck the one that carried the ore, 
and that 's the Twins' Claim where we are going." 

"Well, how do you know when it has got gold in it?" pursued 
Frank. 

" Miners can almost always tell by the color, whether it is good 
or not ; bvit they alwaj'S take some to be assayed, before working a 
prospect much." 

"Well, what is that?" questioned Frank. 

" Why, that is having it tested chemically, to see what it 's made 
of You did n't suppose gold came in solid chunks, did you ? " 

" It does sometimes," interrupted Flossy ; " because I have seen 
imitation nuggets in museums." 

" Well, I mean regularly," explained Tod. " Once in a great 
while somebody will strike a nugget, but that is not an every-day 
thing; it generally comes all mixed up with lots of other things, 
like iron, copper, silver, and lead. That 's why we have to take it to 
the assayers to find about what proportion of each there is, so we 
can tell whether the lode will pay to work. Sometimes a lot of good 
ore will come out, then there will not be any worth much for a long 
time, and then we will strike a rich vein again. When we were 
here once before," said Tod, " I remember of going to a ball game 
when one of the players stubbed his toe on something and fell. He 
picked it up and found it was a gold nugget worth three hundred 
dollars ! " 

" You don't suppose I am tender enough, as you say, to bolieve 
that, do you ? " said Frank. 

" Well, it 's so anyhow, whether you believe it or not," rejoined 
the " double T's ; " " but here we are," said Tod. 



UNDER A MOUNTAIN. 41 

" My ! I did n't think shaft-houses were such big things," ex- 
claimed Esther all out of breath. " I should ha.te to walk up here 
every day, though ! " 

"Yes," said Miss Lovechild, "we would not care to do much 
talking and walking at once. We are glad j'ou saved us the trouble 
of talking. Tod. You gave us some very useful bits of informa- 
tion, too." 

"Why!" exclaimed Gu_v, as they entered the shaft-house, "it's 
like a store, a factory, and a blacksmith shop all combined, with a 
well in the middle ! " 

" You see everything has to be under one roof," explained Tod, 
"to be handy. The miners cannot go to town every day for sup- 
plies, so we have to keep groceries up here, too. Then picks have to 
be sharpened all the time, and other things done, that keep two or 
three blacksmiths busy. Then that big old engine over there, that 
runs the whole business, takes lots of coal. So j^ou see it has to be 
a sort of 'Jack-of-all-stores.' There are the ore rooms over there, 
with some of the bags packed. The best ore is put in bags. Then 
here 's a case of specimens that have been taken from this mine. 
But here comes father, he can tell 3^ou more than I can." 

" Glad to see you all ! " exclaimed Mr. Westerly. " I '11 be glad 
to see you down now, if you 're ready." 

Miss Lovechild and the girls wrapped up in rubber waterproofs 
with rubber hoods and boots, and the boys put on their mackintoshes. 
Tod informed them that " they would not be worth a Yankee 
shilling by the time they came out. It 's worse than mud down 
there. Put on our ' slickers ; ' we 've got our old clothes on, and 
don't care." 

"Your what?" queried Guy. 

" O I suppose you would call them oilcloth coats." 



42 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

'' Here you are ! " said Mr. Westerly, as the big iron bucket 
swung up filled with slimy ore. " Here, boys," he said to two 
miners, " empty it quick, we 've got another kind of ore to load 
on now." 

" O Miss Lovechild," whispered Prudence, " are we going down 
in that dreadful, black, wet, muddy, iron barrel ? How can we ever 
get into it swinging over that dreadful hole ? One wrong step would 
send us to the bottom." 

" But you don't need to take the one wrong step," replied Miss 
Lovechild. 

"01 suppose it must be all right," said Prudence, and she tried 
to appear very brave. Perhaps she remembered her Pilgrim fathers, 
and felt that she must keep up their reputation ; or perhaps she 
caught the flash of daring in Esther's eyes, who was not afraid of 
anything. So it was that when Miss Lovechild asked who would be 
the first to go down, Prudence volunteered at once ; but Mr. Westerly 
said Tod and Tad with Gus would better go first, as they could be 
guides for the others when they went down, and to this the boys, of 
course, readily consented. 

" Come, pile in, boys," he said, as he caught the bail of the 
bucket, and drew it one side so that the rim was even with the floor 
of the shaft-house, while they tumbled in. " None of your pranks 
now," he said. " Here are your candles ; take care that they don't 
go out. There, you 're off," and he touched the electric bell that 
gave the signal for the great wheel to unwind the heavy chain, from 
which swung the bucket. 

" Suppose one link should break ! " whispered Prudence to Miss 
Lovechild. 

"But little Puritan must not always be supposing things," 
said she. " Let us sing them down ! " 



UNDER A MOUNTAIN. 43 

" O yes," said Prudence, " let us sing, ' The old oaken bucket, the 
iron-bound bucket, the moss-covered bucket that hung in the well. ' " 

"That will be joll}^," thej^ all acquiesed, "only there will have 
to be some variations." 

"I have it," said Guy, "we will just give them the chorus of 
The old ore bucket, the iron-bound bucket, the mud-covered bucket 
that hung in the well ! " And they sung with a will, till the " old 
ore bucket " appeared for the next load, then that load sung with the 
others, till they lost each others' voices in the depth of the shaft. 
x\t last Miss Lovechild and Prudence's turn came, after the others 
were all down. 

" Nobod}' to sing to us," said Prudence. 

" Perhaps the}- will sing us a welcome," replied Miss Lovechild. 

" Here we are at the first level. See that long, dark hall, 
Prudence, with the lights on the wall ; they look like very small 
stars in a ver}^ black night, don't they ? See that miner waiting 
with his ore car to load up the shaft bucket. He will have to wait 
still longer won't he ? There ! We passed another level, you can tell 
by the sound of the picks and the glimmer of the lights as we pass 
by. It is like going down the elevator of a large hotel, and catch- 
ing a glimpse of the different landings as we pass, only our elevator 
has muddj^ walls, instead of mirrors and plush upholstering." 

" How far down are we ? " asked Prudence. 

" About eight hundred feet I should think," replied Miss Love- 
child. " There, I can hear them singing ' The old ore bucket.' " 

" Twins' Claim terminus ! Change cars for lowest drift ! " Tod 
shouted. 

As the bucket grounded, Miss Lovechild and Prudence clambered 
out, and laughed at themselves and everybody else, as they stood 
there, ankle deep in water, and bespattered with sticky clay mud. 
3 



44 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

"This goes ahead of anything in the line of Boston mud that I 
ever saw," laughed Guy. 

"And what do you think of it, Prudence? anything like this 
back your way?" inquired Tod. 

" Not unless it 's Bunker Hill Monument upside down," laughed 
Prudence. 

" O there are two or three Bunker Hills upside down in here, 
and a Washington Monument to finish them off, are n't there, Miss 
Lovechild?" asked Tod. 

" How deep is this mine ? " she asked. 

" One thousand two hundred and fifty feet," said Tod. 

" Then we could put three Bunker Hills on top of each other, 
and a Washington Monument on top of them, and still be twenty- 
two feet from the top ; or we could stand the Board of Trade in 
Chicago on the State House in Philadelphia, the Bartholdi Statue 
on top of them, then Cleopatra's Needle as a finishing touch, and 
still be sixteen feet from the top of the shaft ! " 

"Whew!" whistled Guy, "I hope there will not be an earthquake 
just now! My! what's that?" 

" Nothing but a blast on another level," explained Tod. 

" Dear ! I feel as though I was drowned in darkness down 
here ! " exclaimed Esther. 

" I feel more as if I was drowned or going to be drowned in 
water," returned Flossy. "It's splash, splash under our feet, and 
trickle, trickle above and around us. I don't see any difference be- 
tween this and a well, except that this is deeper." 

" And we keep all the water pumped out instead of a part of it," 
rejoined Tod, " as well as pumping into it lots of air." 

" Forward march ! " called Mr. Westerly. " Keep your candles 
well to one side, and yo^x can catch glimpses of the ore as it riins 
like a ribbon through the rock." 




< 



a: 
o 
u. 

< 

H 
> 



UNDER A MOUNTAIN. 45 

" O what is that lovely white stuff overhead ? " cried Flossy ; 
"it's like white moss, and just covers those old planks." 

" Yes, that grows in the old tunnels that have been timbered up 
a good while, and makes a very pretty effect. It is a kind of 
fungus," explained Mr. Westerly. Suddenly a very explosive laugh 
from Esther made everybody look around to where she brought up 
the end of the procession. 

"What is the matter?" every one said. 

" O nothing," replied Esther, " only I have been watching you, 
while you have been looking around, and we make the funniest 
parade I have ever seen yet." 

"In a minute you will have something still more weird and 
uncanny to look at than we are, if you keep your eyes open," added 
Mr. Westerly. And sure enough, a few steps more brought them 
around a curve in the tunnel, and gave them a view of what appeared 
to be a group of shadows working with picks in the darkness at a 
heap of broken timber, loose rock, and earth. 

"Why, what is the matter?" 

"A cave-in!" "A cave-in!" shouted Tod ; "when did it happen?" 

" Last night when the night shift went on. They had been 
working here only a little while stouping." 

"Anybody hurt?" asked Tad. 

"No, nothing to speak of; it needn't have happened if they had 
been more careful, though stouping is always a little dangerous," 
replied Mr. Westerly. " I thought you would all like to see a real 
cave-in, though, so I brought you around here. There is no danger 
if you don't go too near. Now, Miss Esther, just imagine that there 
are some arms and legs scattered around and sticking out of that 
heap, here and there, and you see what often happens down here ; 
the cost of gold is greater than many realize. Is n't that more grue- 
some than our parade, as you called it?" 



46 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

"O how horrible!" said Prudence. "I wouldn't be a miner for 
all the gold in the world." 

"I would," said Esther; "it is so exciting and interesting to 
be digging out gold," — "and have some rock smash down on your 
head," put in Guy. 

"It does not happen very often, however, does it?" inquired 
Miss Lovechild. 

"That depends largely on the kind of men that work for us; 
though sometimes, of course, a company is at fault by not keeping 
up repairs," Mr. Westerly replied. " Sometimes when we have a 
careless set working, it happens very often; but it need not happen 
at all. Here is something else, however, that I brought you this 
way to see. They just opened up a vein of ore that is full of very 
pretty crystals such as I fancy you were looking for." And Mr. 
Westerly handed a beautiful specimen of quartz crystals, sprinkled 
with cubes of iron, to Miss Lovechild. 

" O how exquisite ! " she exclaimed. 

"Now is the time to remember, though, that all that glitters is 
not gold; in fact but very little of the real thing makes any show 
at all," said Mr. Westerly. " Here is some that looks iridescent. 
Notice its play of colors, — rose, green, and peacock blue. It is 
worthless as far as we are concerned. We do not find many varieties 
in crystals down here, as one lode tisually carries the same kind of 
combinations. I have some very fine specimens, however, in our case 
above, that I have taken out of other drifts. We will pass around 
this cave-in now," continued Mr. Westerly, leading the way, "and 
there you can see how the men drill and get ready to blast. See 
those two men there at the end of the cave? They are the strongest 
we have in the mine. Drilling is hard work ; it takes muscle to 
swing those heavy hammers." 



UNDER A MOUNTAIN. 47 

" Why do they have so many different lengths of drills ? " Guy 
queried of Tod. 

"Doesn't your Yankee gumption teach you that?" returned 
Tod. " They have to drill first with a short one, and keep changing 
as the hole grows deeper." 

" I don't understand how they can see well enough to strike 
straight," said Frank, " with only those candles to work b}^" 

" Their eyes become used to the darkness after a time," Tod 
replied. 

" Ugh ! what awful work," said Prudence, " to spend one's days 
in the dark, hammering away at rock. They look like Vulcan in 
his workshop, don't they. Miss Lovechild? Just see their great 
strong arms with their muscles knotted and twisted up as they strike 
the blows ! How large and black they stand out against the light of 
the candle beyond them ! " 

" See our underground railway," said Mr. Westerly ; " here 's an 
ore car; climb in, girls, and the boys shall give you a ride." 

" What a dear little car ! Just big enough for us three ! " ex- 
claimed Flossy. " Can't the boys push us back to the shaft, now ? " 

'' Of course they can ; a five-boy power should make quick time ! 
Come, get hold here, and show what you are good for," said Mr. 
Westerly. Then with much laughing and splashing of water, their 
iron chariot was trundled along to the shaft, where the " patent ele- 
vator," as Tod called it, was waiting for them. 

'•' All aboard for daylight ! Who '11 go up first," he shouted. 

Everybody seemed so anxious for the chance, that ]\lr. Westerly 
declared that he believed they were afraid of another cave-in ; but 
Prudence said .that it was only because they were tired of holding a 
mountain over their heads, and that hereafter she should always be 
sorry for Atlas when she saw his picture, with a world on his back ! 



48 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

So Mr. Westerly declared that if she was as tired as that, she should 
go up first, with Flossy, who also looked suspiciously " trembly," and 
it was not long before they were all safely landed high and dry, and 
laughing at the revelations daylight made in their appearance. Mr. 
Westerly was not willing to have them go till they had seen him 
send the electric current that ignited the fuse in the different places 
where they were ready to blast. 

"What fun to hear them go off!" exclaimed Esther; "it's like 
hearing a thunder-storm under your feet, instead of over your head 
where it ought to be ! " Then they started for home with their pock- 
ets filled with specimens. Tod and Tad electrifying them all the 
way by their gymnastic tumbles over the rocks, always managing to 
appear right side up, just when everybody was sure they had killed 
themselves. 




c 

oi 
o 
u. 

-J 
< 



> 

to 

UJ 

o 
o 



V. 
, THE OPENING OF THE UNIVERSITY. 

TOD and Tad were the first to reach the cabin on the eventful 
first day of school. As the others came in sight up the trail, 
they saw them vigorously pulling something hung over the door, 
with a piece of old clothes-line, and then a faint metallic clang 
greeted them. 

" O see the school-bell ! " shouted Frank. 

" That 's a fact ; you can see it better than you can hear it," 
replied Guy. 

" This," explained Tod, as they came nearer, " is the old Liberty 
Bell, hung out of regard to the Eastern portion of our Varsity." 

"You see it is just like it," supplemented Tad, "if it is Mrs. 
Hostess's old dinner-bell, because its got a crack in its side." Where- 
upon Prudence and Guy felt called upon to give a faint cheer, and 
Miss Lovechild laughingly said that it would not be a liberty bell 
unless it proclaimed liberty. 

"But that's just what it does, though," replied Tod. "It's 
asking you all to come right in, and do as you please ; Ksther to sit 
in her hammock, Frank at his table, and the rest of us on our 
planks ; see if it is n't ! " and Tod threw open the door for Miss 
Lovechild to enter. 

"This certainly might be called Independence Hall," she said, 
" for our business agents have remembered everybody's tastes, and 
they deserve credit for their work, too, for it 's well done." 

[51] 



52 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

Across the window-end of the cabin, was a pine plank table, 
neatly covered with manila wrapping-paper ; on the side facing the 
window was a plank bench, made on Guy's economic basis, and 
covered with the remains of an old, striped canvas tent-fly (because 
Flossy and Prudence did n't like splinters) ; across the other end 
facing the fireplace, stretched Esther's hammock ; and in the center, 
due prominence was given to Frank's table and camp-chair ; on the 
floor was a soft, fragrant carpet of pine needles, according to Pru- 
dence's dictum ; and in the corner was rainy-day comfort, in a pile 
of fire logs and pine knots, which Gus stated were the best on the 
mountain. On the mantel, which Floss}^ had festooned with ever- 
green, was a bag of popcorn and in the corner hung a popper. 

"If there had been any apples in market, we would have had 
them for Esther, but they don't get up here till late," Tad explained. 

Over the mantel Frank had tacked a large picture of Liberty, 
which he had clipped from some advertisement. On her shield he 
had pasted a picture of Uncle Sam, which he had cut from a similar 
source ; over her head was tacked an arctic scene, under her feet a 
tropical ; on the right side loomed Bunker Hill Monument, on the 
left, a mining scene, — all of them set in evergreen festoons of 
Flossy's making. 

" We are all here, you see," said Frank, " from the four cardinal 
points." 

Flossy had not been stingy with her festoons, but had framed 
the windows in them, and looped them over the rafters. 

" This looks as though you were ready for mj^ part of the pro- 
gram," Miss Lovechild remarked. " I hope I shall fill my office as 
successfull}^ as you have yours." 

" We are not quite ready for you yet," said the business agents. 
"You didn't tell us what you wanted when we planned the room, 



THE OPENING OF THE UNIVERSITY. 53 

SO we liad to get sometliing that we wanted you to have." As the 
boys said this, Miss Lovechild heard a rustling behind her; and 
when she had turned, the children put in place a large folding table 
and camp-chair, on a low staging which they had made for the pur- 
■pose, behind their table, where Miss Lovechild could see them as 
they worked. 

" Here 's papa's contribution," said the twins, showing a large 
cabinet of minerals. " He sent it down from the mine as soon as he 
knew you were going to use these in teaching us." 

" O how kind of you all to remember me so generously ! " ex- 
claimed Miss Lovechild. 

"Why," said the business agents, "you didn't suppose that we 
were going to see you sit on a pine plank bench, when you were 
just giving us your time to help us, did you? And besides, Frank 
said he would never sit in his camp-chair if you did n't have one too. 
Anyway, teachers ought to be made as comfortable as possible, because 
I suppose it 's rather uncomfortable work teaching youngsters like us, 
isn't it, Miss Lovechild?" 

"I was just thinking," she replied, "that it was going to be just 
the pleasantest thing I ever did, to teach a class so full of ideas of 
their own. Schools can be the very pleasantest places, when every 
one wishes to make them such. I always measure people by the 
thoughts they work out. You remember that when I asked you how 
much you were worth, the boys dipped into their pockets at once ; 
but what I wanted was to have you all dip into your heads for 
ideas, and then work them out with your hands. This you have 
done admirably, and I want you to keep right on doing it, and you 
will learn all that I am going to teach you. I wonder if any of you 
noticed, as you prepared our room, that though you each worked out 
your own independent idea, j^et the success of your work has de- 



54 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

pended on all of you alike. Prudence's New England forethought for 
a rainy day, as well as comfort and neatness, put the fire logs in the 
corner and the pine-needle carpet on the floor. Esther's Southern 
love of comfort, thought of the edibles, as well as the hammock. 
Flossy's New York taste for the artistic, has brightened up our room' 
with the garlands of evergreen. Guy's ingenuity, with Gustave's 
application, made our seats and table, while Western energy and 
business talent, has rushed it all through in good shape, and short 
time, thanks to our three business agents ; " and Miss Lovechild 
smiled. " You see it takes East, West, North, and South to make 
up America ; and the more we mix them up, the better results we 
shall have. You have all the formality you want, I fancy, through 
your long winter school year, so our play school shall be very 
informal. You may ask all the questions you wish, without raising 
your hands, only do not ask them all at once ! My only rule shall 
be to be gentlemen and gentlewomen in all you do, and we shall 
have a delightful class, for some one has defined politeness as ' doing 
the right thing at the right time,' which will cover all the discipline 
any school needs." 

" Now let us christen our school with one verse of America, and 
then I will show you what I have brought for your work." And 
they sang with a will, " From every mountainside let freedom ring." 
Miss Lovechild proceeded to unwrap some very interesting looking 
packages, — contributions from the Crannj^ Crag guests for Pine Eog 
University. First there was a roll of blackboard paper which she 
tacked up ; then a drawing kit for each one ; rulers, pencils, scissors, 
and compasses, and plenty of white cardboard; a roll of colored 
papers, and a can of liquid glue, together with several small jars of 
parlor paste. Besides these, there was a box of colored straw braids, 
all of which greatly excited the curiosity of the children. 



THE OPENING OF THE UNIVERSITY. 55 

" O do let us begin with something quick," said Flossy, " they 
all look so pretty ! " 

" Very well, we will as soon as Frank passes the kits around. 
Now as he gives you your working materials, place them in order 
before you so that you can work faster. The kits should be placed 
exactly in front of you ; the rulers, pencils, compasses, and scissors 
should be placed at your right, together with your paste and glue ; 
after using any of them, be sure that they are placed again at your 
right, or else they will be confused with the things belonging to the 
one who sits on your left. Now we are ready for work." 



VI. 
IRON PYRITES, REGULAR SYSTEM. 

FORM STUDY — THE CUBE. 

WHAT do you call this iron crystal in the mines, Tod?" asked 
Miss Lovechild, holding np before them a beautiful cluster of 
iron p3^rites. 

" Cube iron," he replied. 

" Why ? " continued Miss Lovechild. 

" Because that is the shape of it. I did n't know it was a crystal, 
though. I thought people only called those clear, glassy forms crys- 
tals," added Tod. 

" O yes," replied Miss Lovechild, " any mineral that assumes a 
definite form in its solid state, is a crystal. Do any of you know 
the meaning of the word ' cube ' ? " 

" I guess it means something square," said Frank, " but I don't 
know why." 

" I fancy if it could speak, this form could tell you of a great 
many games of chance it had played, and of mau}^ fortunes it had 
lost and won ; for ' cube ' is derived from the Greek word meaning 
' die ; ' dice are always this shape, you know. This is only one of 
many other crystal forms we are going to learn about ; and because 
they all have some points alike, they are grouped into families just 
as you are. The name of the family or system that this belongs to, 
is the regular, or '■ monometric,' — one measure, that means ; because if 
you were to imagine axes — which I used to fancy, when little, were 
[56] 




Vi 

< 
Q 

z 

< 

X 

o 

S3 

=) 
o 



IRON PYRITES, REGULAR SYSTEM. ' 59 

like bean poles — passed through the form from each 'lateral,' or 
' side ' face, it would divide it like this glass cube. These strings 
represent the axes ; and if we bring them around the outside of the 
model, it appears as though the cube had been ' sub,' or ' under ' 
divided into four more cubes. Then if we can imagine axes passing 
through them as through the large one, we can see them subdivided, 
and so on and on, till no microscope could help us out. When the 
cubes become as small as that, we should have to call them ' mole- 
cules,' which is the name mineralogists give the smallest conceivable 
forms." (See illustration on page 38.) 

"But what makes the crystals form?" asked Guy. 

" Take some salt and hot water, and j^ou can see for yourself how 
it is done," said Miss Lovechild. " Put just as much salt in a cup 
of hot water as it will dissolve, then suspend a string in the center of 
the cup, so it will touch the bottom, for these little cubes like some- 
thing to cling to as the barnacles do. Then place the water where 
it will cool slowly, and when it has evaporated again, the salt that is 
in solution or dissolved, will have again crystallized on your string. 
Then you will understand how the string gets inside of your rock 
candy. I used to think when a very small girl, that the candj^ must 
be strung on like glass beads." 

" But what makes the little cube molecules fly right together ? " 
asked Prudence. 

"A force called attraction, yet scientists really know but little 
about all the ' whys ' of these things. I will illustrate it," said Miss 
Lovechild, "with this magnet that I hold in my hand. We will call 
this the attraction that brings the molecules together in these par- 
ticular forms. Now I will put it in a box of loose needles, and we 
will see what happens. They all fly as though they were really 
alive, and stick all over the magnet in a big heap, do they not ? 



6o A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

Now if they had all stuck together in the shape of a big needle, it 
would show 3-ou exactly how the cr37stals do, for their molecules are 
such orderly little things that they never forget the form they are 
to make." 

"How do they know so much without being alive?" 

" Ah ! that is the wonder of it ! What makes a pansy always 
change the parts it draws from the soil, into pansies ? One would 
think it might sometimes be pardoned if it forgot and made lilies 
instead. Why can an apple, pear, and plum tree grow in the same 
garden, and never change places ? Nothing can make them forget to 
change that life-giving substance which they get from the soil, into 
apples, pears, and plums just as it was intended. If you graft a 
pear scion on an oak tree, as has been done, it would seem par- 
donable if it forgot, and bore acorns instead of pears; but does it? — 
No, indeed ! it will change the oak sap into pear juice, as though it 
grew on a pear tree ! So a sweet apple never forgets to be sweet, 
though it may grow on a sour apple tree ! " 

" Why, Miss Lovechild, are you telling us the real truth ? " said 
the double T's. 

" Yes, indeed ! " said she ; " there is a tree at my home that 
bears both sweet and sour apples, and different varieties of both 
kinds, — all delicious eating apples, though the tree itself was a wild 
apple tree, whose own apples were unfit for use. Yet those different 
grafts never forget how to put together, or organize, that wild apple 
sap into sweet and sour apples of their own varieties, just as the 
cube-iron molecules never forget to make cubes. We may wonder, and 
guess, and have all sorts of theories about these matters, but all we 
can know is what their Maker has told us, which is not how He 
cotdd make them, but how He did make them — ' He spake, and it 
was done ; He commanded, and it stood fast.' He said, ' Let the 



IRON PYRITES, REGULAR SYSTEM. 6] 



■earth bring forth grass, the herb jdelding seed, and the fruit tree 
yielding fruit after his kind, . . . and it was so.' And they have 
never forgotten the law of that word which told them how to grow. 

" Then we are told, ' He putteth forth his hand upon the rock ; ' 
so it is that our little crystals here have never forgotten the shape 
that touch gave them, but have made it a family law by which they 
all constitute themselves. No matter how much of a hurry your salt 
molecules may be in, they never forget that they must have six 
square faces, twelve edges, and eight angles. Now what do you 
think this shape was given us for? I think all these lovely forms 
are God's thoughts crystallized for our use, and that we should study 
them with that in mind. 

" What is the difference between this form and some others that 
I have made in cardboard? See this cylinder, rectangular prism, 
octahedron, tetrahedron, and these pyramids ? What happens when 
I throw them down on my table ? Some fall over on one side 
obliquely, others lie horizontally, and some stretch up perpendicu- 
larly. Notice this cube ; it extends equally in all directions, and so 
is the most perfect solid of them all. The ancient Eg^'ptians used 
it as the symbol of truth. It expresses the thought of solidity and 
strength, and so is the form best adapted to represent building. We 
cannot build houses, however, in our limited space ; but we can make 
some useful articles in pasteboard, which will teach us the use of the 
form. These iron cubes are substantial looking little things, so we 
must make something that shall be substantial and useful. Suppose 
it is a case like this. We can make it very small for stamps, 
medium size for handkerchiefs, or very large for a hat case. 

'' We would better make the medium size. I will put the draw- 
ing on the blackboard and explain it to you, and also explain the 
manner in which you are to finish it ; but you will have to use your 



N 



<N 



■4 



C) 



Q 



^^ 



r-T) 



\K 



<N 



■>-( 



-J- 



4 



^ 



^ 



N^ 



N-, 



IROX PYRITES, REGULAR SYSTEM. 



memory from lesson to lesson, as only the new featnres in each 
model we make, will be explained. All edges that are to be cut and 
glued, will be indicated by similar figures. All edges that are to be 
folded or creased with a knife by cutting half through the paste- 
board, will be marked with a cipher. All points that indicate centers 
of circles where you are to place the needle-point of your compasses 
when describing a circle or an arc of a circle, will be marked with a 
cross. Where it is necessary to crease an edge on the opposite side 
of your cardboard from which your drawing is placed, it will be rep- 
resented in the drawing as a dotted line. Differing measurements 
only are given. Inches are indicated by the double prime ("), and 
feet by the single prime ('). For instance, suppose I want you to 
make one side of this box four inches long. Directly under the line 
representing that side in my drawing, I draw two lines parallel to it, 
and ^' below it, which meet exactly under the middle of the line 
representing the box edge at this point. I place the figure 4 with 
double prime, at each end of the lines. I place an arrow-head to 
show that the measurement 4" is to extend to those points. Now 
suppose that I wish j^ou to draw a circle with a one-inch radius, 
from some given point. I would indicate that point in my drawing 
with a cross, and the radius of the circle by a line extending from 
that center to where the circumference should be, which would be 
pointed by the arrow-head, and the i" should be placed in the center, 
showing that the radius is one inch. 

" Always place your drawings on your cardboard in such a 
manner as will make the least waste. In all of our drawings, our 
first line will represent the greatest horizontal measurement. B}^ it 
we will square the rest of the drawing, whether it falls above or 
below this line, so we will call it our base-line. The base-line of 
the handkerchief case is 12" long; it is divided into three equal parts, 
4 



64 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

each of which measures 4". Ou each point of division, I drew a 
perpendicular line, with the use of my square, measuring 4". These 
perpendicular lines I connected with another horizontal line, thus 
making three squares. Above and below the middle one I drew 
other squares by my steel square. The center one is creased on 
every side, and then the edges, i-i, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, are folded together, 
and a small strip of thin muslin pasted around them, binds them 
firmly together. The box is then ready for its paper covering. The 
cover which completely covers the box like a telescope case, is simply 
a repetition of the box except that its square faces are 4^" instead 
of 4" like the box. The cover should fit so perfectly that it will 
slide over the box easily, and yet when the box is reversed, it should 
be snug enough to keep its place. It is necessary to vary the size 
o{ the cover according to the weight of cardboard and paper used. 

" When you crease your cardboard, always lay your ruler on the 
line to be creased, as a guide for your knife, and draw your knife 
across the line with one firm, steady pressure, so that when the 
edges are folded back from the crease, they will be clear cut and 
■even. Another point to be remembered is that 3'our shears are not 
teeth. So when you cut out your drawing, do not hack and gnaw 
it, but cut evenly and smoothly. You can cover your boxes in any 
way that suits your fancy, but I have covered mine by pasting strips 
of silver paper over the perpendicular edges, lapping them over the 
top and bottom. Then I cut squares of blue leatherette, that I pasted 
on the sides, so as to show %" of the silver margin on each side, 
and to lap over the top and bottom j4". The covering for the cover, 
I cut in one piece like the box itself, only Ys" narrower, to show the 
silver margins on the corners, and allowed enough on the sides to 
turn under the cover. The handle I cut yi" wide and creased on 
both sides as indicated by the dotted lines, then covered with leather- 



IRON PYRITES, REGULAR SYSTEM. 65 

ette, like the box. I then folded it down in place, and fastened on 
the box with nickle paper fasteners. If I had covered the edges Avith 
gilt instead of silver paper, I should have used brass fasteners to 
hold the handle in place to give a harmonious effect which is an ob- 
ject always to be kept in view. 

" Now, I fancy that you all are about to ask, ' What are we to 
do with that pretty colored straw ? ' so I will tell you without waiting 
for the question. You are going to make a basket out of it just the 
shape of this box. And the way you are to do it is, first to make a 
cubical form out of this yellow strawboard, to weave over ; otherwise 
you would have a very poorly shaped basket. Then if you select 
the straw that is yi" wide, you cut 16 strands of sufficient length to 
reach around three sides of your form, allowing yi" for turning in 
on the edge of the basket. Next pin 8 of these in place on the 
bottom of your form ; then weave in under and over these, in the 
opposite direction, the other 8, thus forming the bottom of your 
basket. These strands are then drawn itp the sides of your form, 
and held in place by a stout elastic band. The}^ are the ribs of 
your basket, and represent what is called, in weaving, the warp ; so I 
shall call them warp strands, and the long strand that you weave in 
to form the sides of your basket, I shall call the woof strand, as in 
other weaving, the woof is always that part that is woven into the 
warp. Select the woof strand, for your first basket, of some con- 
trasting color, as it will make the weaving easier. Then fasten this 
under a corner strand of the warp, and pass around the form from 
right to left, drawing out alternatel}^ the warp strands, till the sides 
of your basket are completed. At the corner where you first start, 
insert an extra half strand of the warp, as an odd number of strands 
is necessary, else you would have to skip over two at this corner, 
when weaving regularly under and over. 



66 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

" Finish the edges of your basket with a braid of the straw. 
Either three or four strands make a pretty plait to finish with. If 
you wish a handle, it should be put on before the braid, and should 
be made like it of a three or four-strand plait, and sewed on opposite 
sides or corners. Then sew the plait on, taking care that you make 
your stitches come under the fine strands of the straw, so that they 
do not show. Such baskets are very pretty for many purposes if 
well made. You must be very particular, however, to keep all your 
warp strands perpendicular with the sides of 3^our form, and the woof 
strand horizontal, and pressed firmly to the sides of your form. After 
3'our basket is woven, remove the pins, and slip the basket off the 
form carefully, and lay j^our form away for another time. The suc- 
cess of both your basket and box will depend on how well you 
remember the detail of the work. So to have perfection you must 
remember the saying of Michael Angelo, ' It takes trifles to make 
perfection, and perfection is no trifle.' " 




H 

to 

< 

03 

Q 
Z 

< 

< 
o 

C 
a 

0} 

< 
a 



VII. 
GALENITE, REGULAR SYSTEM. 

FORM STUDY — THE SQUARE PRISM. 

WHAT is this form ? " Miss Lovechild asked, as the children 
settled themselves for their second lesson. 
" I know," said Guy ; " it 's a long cube." 

" I do not think you would find that definition in any geometry," 
remarked Miss Lovechild ; " but it is a good one, nevertheless, for 
that is just what a square prism is; it looks as though two cubes 
had been put together. What is this mineral?" 

" Galenite," replied Tad. 

"And what is our common name for that?" continued Miss 
Lovechild. 

"01 know," said Gus, " it 's lead, and we find it most in the 
silver mines ; it nearly always carries the silver." 

"That isn't what our pencils are made out of, is it?" asked 
Frank. 

" My, no ! " replied Tod ; " this won't make a scratch." 

" What Frank has reference to is the graphite of lead," explained 
Miss Lovechild, " which is black lead. Now though this form is so 
much like the cube, yet it belongs to a different famil}', because it 
has axes of two different lengths, — one long one, and two short 
lateral axes, — so the mineralogists have named its family dimetric, 
or two-measure, or it is called the tetragonal. This galenite really 
belongs to the monometric, or one-measure family ; but when it 
cleaves, it as often forms square prisms as cubes, so I am going to 

[69 J 



70 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

use it to illustrate the form. We used the cube for a handkerchief 
case. Now what can we use this for ? What do you think, Flossy ? " 

" Made the same way, it would be nice for a glove case." 

" Yes, that would do very well ; or this form could be developed 
in a very large size for a telescope case, using a foundation of tar- 
board, and covering it with linen canvas, fastening a shawl-strap on 
the top for a handle. It is made in every particular like the cubical 
case, only double the size when used for a glove case. So I am 
not going to tell you any more, for I wish to see how good vour 
memory is. Where do you see this form most commonly used? Guy 
ought to tell me that." 

"You mean in building, don't you, Miss Lovechild?" he said. 

" Yes, but in what part ? " she asked. 

" In pillars and in different kinds of supports." 

" I know something else," said Prudence ; " it is the shape that 
monumental shafts are made in, only thej^ have a little pyramidal top, 
like Cleopatra's Needle." 

" Yes," said Miss Lovechild, " here is another little crystal' really 
belonging to this system which is finished with a little pyramidal 
cap at each end. This is called zircon. These long-faced cubes have 
a hard life of it, supporting buildings and living in cemeteries, do 
they not? They are highly honored, too, however, for the highest 
monument in the world — the Washington — is this form. Now to 
what use could you put a basket made in this form ? Esther, you 
look as though you had an idea ; what is it ? " 

" I was wondering why a basket for ribbons and ties would not 
be pretty made in that form." 

" They would be very pretty," said Miss Lovechild ; " and you 
would not have to wonder where your ribbons and ties were, when 
you were in a hurry. How will you make it ? " 



GALENITE, REGULAR SYSTEM. 71 

"Just like the cubical basket, only double tbe size, I suppose," 
said Esther. 

"Yes," Miss Lovecbild replied, "only I would suggest that you 
make it out of this palm leaf instead of hat braid ; it would be more 
suitable for such a basket. I will not repeat the weaving directions, 
as it will be a good memory test for 3fou to recall what I told you 
about the other. Since you are a little more familiar with weaving 
now, it will do to weave some simple design, such as a band of color 
around a white basket, and a corresponding band through the center 
of the cover. Your cover is the only point of diiTerence between this 
and your cubical basket, and should be woven, after the basket is 
finished, on the bottom of the basket-form ; and if made of fine palm 
leaf, should be finished with a wide plait of the same, sewed on the 
edge, inside and out, to strengthen it. A corresponding plait of palm 
leaf should be sewed around the top of the basket, that there may be 
a firm edge for the cover to rest on. It should be fastened to the 
basket with bows of narrow ribbon or a piece of straw slipped 
-through the cover, and woven into the basket. This same basket- 
form can be made very large for a picnic basket or traveling lunch 
case, with a woven telescope cover, and finished inside with Avoven 
apartments half the height of the basket, with a tray to fit in the 
basket, and rest on the partitions. Think of other models you can 
make out of this form, while you are at home ; but whatever you 
make, let it be made good enough for use ; but, on the other hand^ 
do not make it too good to be used. Do you know what I mean ? 
You look puzzled. I will put it in another way; make what is 
useful for the use required. I have seen girls wear very pretty silk 
dresses to school. They were not suitable for school, however, though 
they would have been very pretty for an evening entertainment — the 
dresses were too good for the use, you see. Others who could afford 



J 



J " 



J 



3=1: 



-P-t 



O 



V 



4^ 



V 



00 



^N 



N/ 



J 



V 



GALENITE, REGULAR SYSTEM. 73 

but poor clothing, would attend school through all the cold winter, 
in cotton dresses, and save their one good wool dress to wear to 
church one day in the week. Now their cotton dresses were not 
good enough for the needed use, because they were not warm 
enough ; while the one wool dress was misused since wool is worn 
for warmth, or ought to be. So either they did not care to be warm 
but one day in the week, or else they misused the wool dress by 
wearing it for appearance." 

" But," put in Gustave, " my mother can't afford to get my little 
sister but one warm dress. Shouldn't she have something good to 
wear to church? " 

"What do you attend church for?" asked Miss Ivovechild. "If 
it is to honor God, I think he would be pleased to see you in the 
same dress that you had worn all through the week, if it was the 
onl}^ warm one you had, rather than see you shiver six days in order 
to look nice one day. It honors him to take the best care of these 
bodies he has given us, rather than to dress them just to look well. 
It would be better, Gus, for your little sister to wear her wool dress 
all the time and have her cotton dresses turned into aprons to protect 
it on school days. But what has all this to do wdth making ribbon- 
baskets ? you will ask. — Just this : we cannot even make a basket 
without weaving into it a great many right and wrong ideas, as well 
as straw. You should not make your baskets so fancy that when 
you take them home, your mother will say, ' That is too pretty to 
use; I will put it in the parlor.' Ribbon-baskets have no place in 
parlors, because parlors are not where people make their toilet. 
Neither should you make your basket poorly, for then it would be put 
where no one but yourself would see it. The very fact of 3'our doing 
so, would prove that it had no value in your eyes but that of its 
appearance, and we do not make these things to look at, l)ut to use. 



74 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

A poorly made basket being unfit for iise, would better be unmade. 
Wben you select the straw for your basket, choose something that 
will harmonize with 3-our glove and handkerchief cases, and that will 
look well with the colors in your room ; for we are taught in nature 
to combine use and beauty, as no created thing was made for appear- 
ance alone. In nature all is made for use ; but the use of things is 
made beautiful by their correct proportion, harmony of parts, and 
beaut}^ of coloring." 

"But weren't the flowers made just to look at?" questioned 
Flossy. 

" No, indeed ! " replied Miss Lovechild ; " it is now generally 
known, that they are powerful germicides, and some of them are 
medicinal. You see, when man makes a disinfectant, he makes some- 
thing that, as some one has put it, ' smells worse than the original 
smell.' But God makes a lovely flower that can take up the poison 
of its surroundings and change it into sweet perfume and beautiful 
color. This is God's way of overcoming evil with good. But had 
flowers been created alone for their beauty, they would be useful in 
the highest sense. We will talk, however, of the use of beautiful 
things some other time; just now the thought for you is to make 
your models so they shall be beautiful for their intended use." 




Ui 

t/) 
< 
CO 

Q 

z 

< 
o 

o 
f- 
o 
c 
a 

Of 
O 

z 

or 



VIII. 

BARYTES, RHOMBIC SYSTEM. 

FORM STUDY — THE RECTANQULAR PRISM. 

SUPPOSE that I should cut this square prism in halves vertically ; 
what kind of axes would they have? Here, Guy," said Miss 
Lovechild, " take this soap and slo3-d knife, and cut out a 
square prisin ; then divide it in the center vertically ; then take these 
needles and pins, — 3''ou see there are different lengths, — and run 
them through the soap-form for axes. Now tell me whether they are 
like the axes of the square prism." 

" There are the same number," replied Guy, " but they are all 
different in length." 

" Yes, they are three-measured, you see," Miss Lovechild said ; 
" so this family is called trimetric and also rhombic. See, this 
crystal has two broad faces, two long, narrow faces, and two short, 
narrow faces. Can you mention anything made in this shape ? " 

" Bricks," said Frank, " and books," added Prudence. 

" Yes, two very important ' b's,' " said Miss Lovechild. " There 
are any number of useful pasteboard articles that we might make ; 
but one of the simplest would be a photograph holder, or the model 
could be slightly enlarged and used for two or three books. Gift 
books are often sold in these small cases. The plane faces in your 
drawing are arranged much like those of 3'our square prism ; this, 
like the other two models, will give }-ou practise in drawing right- 
angled forms. The only differing feature in this is the semicircular 

[77] 






A 



/V-) 



\, 



gV 



"^ 



t 



^^ 



sV 



-^4- 



BAYRITES, RHOMBIC SYSTEM. 79 

ttumb holes in the sides. To draw them, take a radius of ^" and 
place the needle-point of your compasses in the middle of the line 
indicated by the cross, and describe a half circle. When you cover 
the form, the gilt paper should first be pasted over the narrow faces 
and a margin of it pasted over the upper edge of the form ; then it 
will be ready for the paper sides, which should be of fancy embossed 
or leatherette paper. Now what kind of basket can you make over 
this form that would be useful and appropiate? One for school-books 
would be just the thing, would it not? A good proportion would be 
12" long, 3" wide, and 7" deep. You see it is the same rectangular 
form of the photo holder, only different dimensions. After the form 
is made, fasten your strands on it as you have the others, always 
weaving the bottom first. You may weave in any design you fancy, 
but it is pretty woven with all the warp strands of wide straw, and 
the woof with the very narrow palm leaf ; this gives the effect of 
simply binding the warp together, and makes a pleasant change from 
the other baskets. Both of these models are very plain, and equall}^ 
prett}' if they are neatly made. 

" You see how perfect the rectangular plates of these crystals are ; 
they are beautiful because the edges are all true. Here is some 
galenite again. This cleaves into rectangular plates, as well as 
square prisms. You see the beauty of it lies in its clean-cut edges 
and the smooth shining surfaces of its broad sides. Your holder will 
be more difficult to make smooth on its sides than the cases were, 
and 3'ou will need to spread your paste with great care or the sides 
will have a lumpy appearance. 

" I have made two models to show you to-da^^," Miss Lovechild 
continued; "and I would like to know which 3'ou like best. I made 
them to illustrate two ways of working that I see you have here. 
This first model has rather rough edges, 3-ou see ; but I covered 



So A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

them lip with guilt paper, so that they would not show much. The 
paper is about 1-16 of an inch farther over one side than the other, 
and then there are a few lumps in the paste that I did not stop to get 
out ; but I was in a hurry to finish it. One end of the box is a 
little longer than the other, too, but it won't show much. There are 
some specks of paste here and there, but it will hold photos. 

" Here is another, made on a little different plan. Can you tell 
me which you would rather have ? The perfect one, of course, you 
all say ; and I am not surprised, but why? It looks better I know; 
but why does it look, better? — Its edges are true, and it is cleaner 
and neater, Prudence says, which I know ; but what do you mean 
when you say its edges are true ? Can edges tell lies ? I should 
like to know what you think about it, and why you like this model 
that has true edges better than this crooked, soiled one ? None of 
3^ou say anything, but look as though you thought I had asked you 
some remarkably silly questions. Now when you make these edges, 
what are they supposed to represent ? — A rectangular form, which 
is one made of right angles, — the only kind of angle Ave have 
had anything to do with as yet, and it is 90 degrees of a circle. So 
you see if we make a model bounded by what we intend to be eight 
right angles, and the}' fail several degrees more or less of being right 
angles, they pretend to be something they are not ; and is that not 
telling a lie? The lines that form these angles are supposed to be 
straight and true with the base-line ; but if the angles vary, they 
must either bend in or out, so they are crooked when they pretend 
to be straight, and tell lies, too ; for a straight line is the shortest 
distance between two points, which the truth always is. We like 
these straight, true things in proportion as we have in ourselves a 
love for the truth ; and the only way we can be true is to measure 
ourselves according to the rule which God hath given us. 




-i 
< 



> 
< 

b- 

< 

-J 

3 
O 

z 

!- 
O 

UJ 

en 

a 
u 
-1 
u 
> 

oa 



IX. 

CRYSTALLIZED SUGAR, MONOCLINIC SYSTEM. 

FORM STUDY — THE RECTANGULAR PRISM BEVELED. 

1 WONDER if you can guess what this crystal is ! It belongs to 
the monoclinic system, and is something like the rectangular 
plate of our last form, only it has different edges. We call them 
beveled when they are like this. The makers of the handsome plate 
glass mirrors might have taken their idea of beveling from crystals, 
if they had studied them, could they not ? You see this crystal is 
almost as clear as glass and only slightly translucent. x\nd if I did 
not think it too beautiful, I do not doubt you would enjoy eating it." 
"O I know," said Prudence, "this is salt." 

" No, it is not," replied Miss Lovechild, " but it is good to eat, 
nevertheless. I do not wonder that you look surprised, for the other 
crystals I have showed you, have not been edible. This did not 
crystallize in the ground, however, though it grew from the ground 
before it was a crystal. There, I have almost told you ! " 

" Sugar ! " said Ksther. " I know, for I have seen it grow and 
made, too. I never saw such a large, nice crystal, though, before." 
" Yes, it is unusually iine. I had to look through a good many 
pieces of rock candy before I found such a perfect one," said Miss 
Lovechild ; " and now what shall we make from this ? Suppose we 
make a writing tablet ; it would be very convenient, don't you think 
so? You see we could use one side for paper, and the other for 
envelopes, and make two leaves for the center, covered with blotting- 

[83] 



CRYSTALLIZED SUGAR, MONOCLINIC SYSTEM. 85 

paper wliicli would serve to hold tlie paper and envelopes in place, 
and be useful to write on, too." 

" The drawing will consist of one rectangular plane within 
another, drawn on the same principle as the rectangular faces of 
your photo holder, the only differing feature being a V-shaped notch 
cut from each corner, greater or less, as you desire a slight or deep 
bevel. These edges are then joined, which forms your bevel. You 
must be very particular that your V-shaped notches are just the 
same on every corner, as otherwise your bevel will be imperfect, and 
the sides of the tablet will not come together evenly. The beveled 
portion of your tablet should be covered with marbled paper or plain 
gilt or silver, and the surface of the sides with heavy leatherette. 
This will be another pretty model to go with your photo holder for 
your table or desk or wherever you do your writing and studying ; 
so choose the color for it that will harmonize with the rest of your 
table or desk fittings. Paste over the back of the tablet where it 
folds together, a piece of narrow ribbon or tape, to strengthen it, and 
do the same on the back of the leaves. The leaves are held to the 
tablet by ribbon, which is drawn through the inside and tied on the 
back of the tablet. 

"How can this form be developed in weaving? It does seem a 
little puzzling at first ; but you can make out of it, one of the most 
useful articles ; see ? Take half of this tablet opened. It is the 
precise form for a tray, and you can make a beautiful one by weav- 
ing a form like this, or varying the dimensions slightly; 10" long by 
5" wide or twelve by eight, with a two-inch bevel, makes a pretty 
and acceptable bread-basket, when developed in white palm leaf. In 
order to shape these trays nicely, it is best to make the warp strands 
of wide split birch or wide palm leaf, and weave them together with 
the narrow strands of birch, such as the Indians use ; or make your 



86 



A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 



woof Strands of the palm leaf cut into strips of 1-16" in width. 
After taking off the form, it is finished like the other models by 
enclosing the edges in a double plait of the white palm leaf, or of 
whatever material you weave it with. 

"What is the matter, Tod? you seem to be in trouble." Miss 
Lovechild inquired, as she finished the explanation of the drawing. 

" I was in a hurry to get my tablet made," Tod replied, " and I 
have done it all wrong somehow, for it won't come together at all." 

"Did you measure it, after finishing your drawing?" Miss 
Lovechild asked. " I imagine not, or else you mistook one half for 
one quarter of an inch. This line, which represents the back-bone of 
your box, is %" out of the way on one end, while it is right on the 
other. Spinal curvatures are deformities in boxes as well as in people. 
You thought it was too much trouble to measure the second time, 
I suppose; but now you will have ^ to make the whole model over. 
It does take hard work to make a tablet, or anything else, properly. 
We always have to pay for our things even if we make them our- 
selves. Do you wonder how that is ? When we give care and atten- 
tion and patient work and careful handling, we are paying for a 
good model, and it is sure to come. When we want a nice-looking 
model, and do not want to work for it, we feel as people do who 
want money but do not wish to earn it; and then you know what 
they are ver}? apt to do. 

" We have talked about telling lies in our work ; but did you ever 
think that we can pay lies for things? Honesty is just truthfulness 
applied to the value of what we buy and sell. Suppose that we 
should dress up a piece of furniture that was not worth much, and 
make it look well, and then sell it on its appearance. We would be 
taking an untruthful value for it. So when you agree to work for 
somebody, and give them a certain amount of time for a certain 



CRYSTALLIZED SUGAR, MONOCLINIC SYSTEM. 87 

amount of money, and then give as little work in that time as 
3'ou dare to, you are paying an untrue value for the money you 
receive. You are laying the foundation for all these lying values 
when you lazily and carelessly work out a model and make mistakes, 
and then try to pass your model off as the best you could do. Be 
assured that you cannot be paid good values for poor work, in the 
shape of good models. They always tell the true story, and only 
pay you for what you have given, be it lazy, careless effort or hard, 
faithful work. This is why a model is of such value; it shows to 
every one the truth of your work ; for this reason I do not wish to 
draw so much as one line for yoi:, or help you at all in 3'our work, 
for then it would be just showing people what you and I could do 
together, or worse still, letting j-ou palm off my work as yours. 

" I am always willing to help you by making parts of a model 
myself, with different material, but I never wish to touch your work, 
for it would spoil it. 

" Many times when I had worked long and faithfully on some 
drawing, which I did when a child, to show my friend what I could 
draw, ni}^ teacher would take the work from mj^ hands and touch it 
up here and there with her practised strokes. Did it please me to 
take home a better-looking drawing than I could do ? — Indeed it did 
not ! I could hardly choke down indignant tears to see my work 
spoiled. My mother did not wish a sample of my teacher's work, 
she knew that she could draw, but she wished to see my own effort. 
Teachers like to have their pupils reflect credit on their teaching, 
and so they make it appear that they are doing remarkably well by 
touching up their work. If I should do that, you see I would be a 
dishonest teacher — my teaching would not tell the truth. I do not 
want the boys or girls that I teach to endanger themselves, through 
dishonest work, of developing into land ' sharks.' Do you know 



88 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

what they are ? Perhaps not, if you have never been unfortunate 
enough to make a meal for one of them. But we meet them every- 
where. I suppose they took their name from their man-destroying, 
water original. A water shark's main idea, you know, is to fill him- 
self up at the expense of others, and that is why we call men 
"sharks" who, when they deal in real estate, mines, stocks, etc., 
fill themselves up at the expense of others. And it is an excellent 
name for ever}' one who deals on this principle. 

" Sometimes whole shoals of these sharks get together and make 
a ' corner ' on some good thing that everybody needs, and have things 
all their own way in their select, sharking pool, and make a rare 
feast off their victims. They probably like to have good things 
without working for them, just as some of you would like to have a 
fine-looking model and have every one say, ' How nicely that boy 
works,' when 3'ou had put but little painstaking effort into it. It 
seems to be the nature of every one, however, to like something for 
which they do not pay. That is the reason so many girls and ladies 
like the ' bargain counters ' and ' slaughter sales.' They do not 
realize that everj^thing must have its true value, and that somebody 
must pay for it, if they do not. But you may depend upon it that 
when there is a slaughter sale, somebody is slaughtered, and it is 
not the buyers. They go off satisfied with the bargain they got for 
less than half cost. Neither is it the sellers. They made their 
regular profit, and that is as far as the people usually go. They 
forget the manufacturers, and that it means that they have paid 
correspondingly less for the raw materials and the labor required 
to make the manufactured article. So the people who pay for your 
bargains are those who give the real labor of furnishing the raw 
materials, and making them up, — the very ones who should above 
all others have their honest profit." 



CRYSTALLIZED SUGAR, MONOCLINIC SYSTEM. 89 

" But are there no honest bargains ? " put in Frank. 

"Certainl}^; take remnant sales, for instance; the merchants have 
made their proiit on the goods ; small remnants are not valuable, and 
they can afford to sell them at cost, if the purchaser can find a use 
for them. So with many articles whose salability is dependent on 
the prevailing style. Merchants usually ask enough more for such 
an article when in style, to secure themselves against loss, for what 
has to be sold when it is a little out of style. So a mark-down is 
made which is perfectly legitimate, for the seller offers to sacrifice 
some on his profit, if the customer is willing to sacrifice style to 
save money, so the bargain is a true one. But always remember 
when you have money to spend, and are looking for bargains, to 
stop and think whether you are feeding parasites or making one out 
of yourself." 



X. 

APOPHYLLITE, TETRAGONAL SYSTEM. 

FORM STUDY — SQUARE PRISM WITH TRUNCATED ANGLES. 

WHAT form shall I call this?" asked Miss Lovechild, holding 
up a beautiful specimen of apophyllite. 
" I think it looks like the old New England barns with 
their curb-roofs," said Prudence. 

"It looks more like a house with four gables," said Guy, "only 
the gables are upside down." 

"It is the square prism again, is it not?" said Miss lyovechild, 
" only its angles have been truncated, or cut off, leaving four equilat- 
eral triangles in their place. Here is the same model in a soap-form. 
Now see what happens when I continue truncating these angles. 
There ; I have a figure now of eight equal angles, or an octahedron. 
You see this form is a square prism that had started to make an 
octahedron of itself, and stopped when it was half done. Now this is 
a fancy shape, so let us make a fancy box from it, such as confec- 
tioners use for bonbons ; and as it is to hold something so delicate 
to eat, we must make the box as dainty as possible. The drawing is 
like that of the square prism in different proportions ; and the new 
feature of this is the equilateral triangles on the corners. I have left 
the arcs on one corner, so that you can see how it is formed. I first 
placed my compasses exactly in the right-angled corner, and described 
a circle with an inch radius ; then I connected with straight lines the 
points of intersection that the circle made with the edges or lines 
[90] 





a 
-1 
o 
z 

< 

a 

u 

< 
o 
z 

H 
E 



X 

o 

CO 
Q 

z 

< 

'J) 
< 

oa 

f) 

S 
a 

u: 
< 

O* 

t/) 



APOPHYLLITE, TETRAGONAL SYSTEM. 93 

that represented the edges of the box. These form the true outlines 
of the box. At the points where the circle intersects the rectangle^ 
which represents the top of your cover, place the needle-point of 
your compasses, taking a radius equal to the distance between the 
points, and describe two arcs. Their point of intersection will give 
the vertex of the equilateral triangles that form the corners of the 
box. Your drawing is then ready to crease and cut as indicated. 

"This box has a cardboard lining, which holds the cover in 
place so the box and cover exactly meet. It is cut 1-16" smaller 
than the box, and should be of thin white or lightly tinted card- 
board. The box is covered with light pink enamel paper, and also 
the sides of the cover. The paper for the top of the cover is cut 
to extend over the triangular corners, where it is held in place by 
a heart-shaped seal of deeper pink enamel. Then there are two 
narrow, light pink ribbons, the shade of the covering paper, crossed 
in the center of the cover, and held in place by another heart-shaped 
seal. When the cover is put on the box (which you can imagine is 
filled with candied fruits to send to some friend), the ribbon should 
be brought around and tied, and your card slipped under it. To 
draw the heart for a seal, make an equilateral triangle first, one side 
of which we will call the top ; then divide or bisect exactly in the 
middle. From this point to the opposite angle, or vertex of the tri- 
angle, draw a straight line. Take one third of this as a radius and 
the point of bisection as a center, and draw a semicircle which shall 
cut the perpendicular, and will, of course, just meet the side of 3'our 
angle which you took as the base. With the same radius, bisect 
each arc thus formed, using the point where the semicircle cut the 
perpendicular, as a center. Then with this point of bisection as a 
center, on each sid; draw arcs, which form the top of the heart ; 
the}' will meet exactly in the middle, and extend to either end of the 




l'/{ 










o 
5 






4- 


i ^'^ i 



3 
L ^— _^ 




k 4. y' 





APOPHYLLITE, TETRAGONAL SYSTEM. ' 95 

base-line. I have given this to you in proportions instead of any 
definite measure, because you can remember better the principle of 
drawing a heart, as it is often used in various designs. 

" When you make the form for your basket, it should be made 
like the bottom of- your box, with the triangles on the corners of the 
basket instead of on the corners of the cover. The basket should be 
woven out of two shades of narrow straw tape, using the darker for 
the bottom ; which is woven like your other baskets till j^ou reach 
the vertex of the triangle. Here the ribs of your basket are inter- 
woven, forming the triangular corners, and the woof strand with 
which 3-ou are weaving the sides, is passed imder every corner, leav- 
ing them woven in solid colors. The edges are finished in the usual 
way. The cover is flat, and rests on the basket like the others. It 
is woven over a piece of cardboard, cut the shape of the top — a 
rectangle with its corners cut off. The dark strands are fastened on 
first diagonally from corner to corner, and woven simplj^ under and 
over, where they meet in the center. The light strands representing 
the woof are then woven across the narrowest wa}^, and are passed 
under the woven diamond, formed by the diagonal weaving, thus 
leaving it in relief to correspond with the triangular corners. 

" It will be necessary for you to make this box and form with 
the greatest precision, or they will be a total failure. A line made with 
an ordinarily sharp-pointed pencil, measures 1-32 of an inch. Now 
suppose that you make your drawing only two lines' breadth out of 
the waj'- on each side of your triangles. When you are ready to glue 
the edges together, you will find them to be one half of an inch 
lacking or one half overlapping, which would be sufficient to spoil 
your box. 

"The reason that you are so apt to make imperfect drawings, is 
because you attempt the drawing before you half understand what it 



gb ' A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

is you are to do. Better spend one half of j'-our lesson in looking 
at your subject, and the other half in correctl}'- expressing it, than to 
plunge into a drawing at once, and have to make it over several 
times in order to have it correct. 

" Flossy, your father has a camera, and you have watched him 
make negatives. Can he print a good photograph from a poor nega- 
tive? or can he make a good negative from a poor subject? — No, of 
course he cannot;, and how can j^oiir minds make good reproductions 
of what they do not more- than half see? They correspond to the 
sensitive plate, and your eyes to the lens ; so be sure that they 
reflect your siibject well before you try to reproduce it. Remember 
that photographers spend the greater part of their time in focusing 
and arranging the light and shade, and in making a general study 
of their subject. The taking of the picture is only the work of a 
moment. 

" The world's greatest artists have been remarkable for their 
accurate memories of their subjects ; and so well trained were their 
eyes to see, that a single look at a face was sufficient to produce a 
perfect portrait. A Japanese boy's eye is so well trained that he can 
give you a description of an object more readily, perhaps, with his 
pencil, than with his tongue. 

" Train your eyes by looking carefully at a form ; then shut 
them and think the form out in all its detail. If 3'ou have forgotten 
anything, it is because you have not sufficiently exposed your ' men- 
tal plate.' Many do not know how to look at an object, but seem 
bound to get one-sided views. Always look first for the perfect 
whole, and then examine the details that go to produce the subject 
as a whole. You can apply this same principle in the matter of 
' getting lessons ' as you call it. Did you ever wonder why some 
people learn so much more quickly than others ? — It is because they 



APOPHYLLITE, TETRAGONAL SYSTEM. 97 

understand how to look at their work. They look at it so carefully 
on all sides, that a perfect understanding is had of it first ; and that 
really is the ' getting ' part of it. The detail of expressing it after- 
ward, is the least of the lesson. 

"Did you ever notice how a hen looks at anything? She is 
just like some people who cannot focus both eyes at once on a single 
object. Thej' are always taking two views of a subject at the same 
time from different standpoints, instead of centralizing all their 
mental effort from one point 07t one point. Their mental vision is 
apparently on opposite sides of their heads like a hen's. A hen may 
be looking at a fly with one eye, and at an angleworm with the other. 
If she could speak, we would not be at all surprised to hear her say 
that angleworms had wings, and could fl}^, and that flies were long 
wriggly things, that squirmed in the dirt. She would be absolutely 
positive of the fact, too ; for had she not seen them with her own 
eyes ? About half the serious controversies of the Avorld, and some of 
its saddest mistakes, can be explained by this universal habit of one- 
sided seeing ; and I am inclined to think that all of your mistakes 
could be put down on that score, are n't you ? When a bov or a girl 
has one eye on his neighbor's work and one on his own, or one eye 
on the work in hand, and the other on something he is going to do, 
the chances are that there will be worse combinations than angle- 
worms with wings." 



XI. 

• ZIRCON, TETRAGONAL SYSTEM. 

FORM STUDY — THE QUADRANGULAR PYRAMID. 

DO you remember what that crj'stal of apophj'llite was trying to 
make of itself, Prudence, when it stopped just halfway?" 
"Wasn't it an octahedron?" asked Prudence. 

"Yes," said Miss Lovechild, "but what kind of one? See these 
little brown opaque crystals in my hands ? They are zircon crystals 
from Tennessee, and look like two pyramids put together at the 
base. Each pyramid is made of four equal-sided triangles. When 
they are formed this way, we call them ' regular,' and two such 
pyramids united make a regular octahedron. But suppose that two 
sides of each one of these triangles are the same length and longer 
than the base. An octahedron made of them, wovxld be formed by 
truncating the angles of a square prism, all of which would be 
isosceles. I have chosen this zircon for our model, though there are 
many other octahedrons. Here is a pyramid of alum in the regular 
system. You have only to imagine two of these, placed base to base, 
to have a still more perfect octahedron. 

" Can you tell us, Frank, what practical use we can make of 
■this form ? " 

" I don't know," he replied, " unless it is to make a Cheops 
pyramid. And then I don't know what we would do with it ; but I 
suppose it must be something useful. But I don't think of anything 
useful that we can make out of it in pasteboard. If we were only 

[gS] 




Of 

u 

a 
-] 
o 
r 

u 
z 



CQ 



< 

> 

a. 

LU 

< 
c 

1/3 



ZIRCON, TERAGONAL SYSTEM. lOI 

building, we could finish off the towers and roofs of our houses 
with pyramidal tops." 

" I see you are rather skeptical, Frank, as to the uses of paste- 
board. How is it with the rest of you ? " asked Miss Lovechild. 

" I have seen fancy boxes something like that, but we will have 
so many of those," replied Flossy. 

"We can't think of a thing," said the double T's, "but sheet- 
iron chimney caps ! " at which the class laughed. 

Then Miss Lovechild said, " I see ideas run low to-day, and that 
I shall have to help you out, though I admit that this pyramidal 
form is best suited for architectural purposes. The Egyptians were 
not alone partial to it, for the form was prominent in the massive 
structures of the Babylonians, and in all Mesopotamian art. The 
Dravidian, or Indian, architecture also gives prominence to the 
pyramidal form. But, as Frank says, we are not building, and it 
is more difficult to know what we can do with it in pasteboard. 
Imagine this zircon crystal to be hollow, and that it is possible to 
open it here in the center where the pyramids meet. We could 
make a capital twine-holder out of it by punching a small opening 
in the vertex of each pyramid, through which we could pass the 
twine to unwind it. Here is one I have made for you ; there is 
room for two balls of twine in it — one coarse and one fine, or two 
different colors. The bases of the pyramids meet, and are fitted like 
the bonbon box, and the twine unwinds, you see, through the vertex 
of each pyramid, and so does not become entangled. 

" The drawing I have given you, hardly needs explanation 
because it is so simple. You can vary the proportion if you like, 
though a good one is to make the base of each pj^ramid 3" square 
and 1% " wide. Then you have simply to erect an equilateral tri- 
angle on each side of the base, leaving margins when you cut them 



I02 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

out, to lap the sides on when gluing. The pyramids are pretty 
covered with gilt or silver paper, as both reflect the light ; and a 
ribbon tightly drawn around the base of each, secured with a bow 
and knot, makes a pretty finish. 

" The basket-form for this is more difficult than the pasteboard. 
This is the first model you will make that has not had a square or 
'rectangular base and top. Here I have inverted the pyramidal form, 
and have woven it for a waste-basket. It has no woof strand, but 
the warp does double duty by interweaving with itself diagonally. 
After making your pasteboard form the desired size, — eight or ten 
inches square at the base is a good proportion, — select two colors of 
palm leaf, and cut the strands of sufficient length to reach diagonally 
around the form from vertex to base. Some will necessarily be very 
short and others longer, so you will need to measure each one. You 
should begin at the vertex to weave, by pinning a long strand on 
the form diagonally ; then pin one a little shorter of the same color, 
just above it, and so on like stairs, till you reach the top. Then 
begin on the opposite diagonal of your pyramid with your contrasting 
color, and pin these strands in place like the others, interweaving 
them where they meet. By this arrangement, if your colors are 
3?ellow and white, two sides of you.r basket will be mixed, and one 
side will be solid j^ellow and the other plain white. The cover 
should also be diagonally woven to correspond with the basket. It is 
intended to hang over the side of a desk or table, so you will need 
two rings which should be fastened between the inner and outer 
plait, which finishes the edges of the basket. The rings can be 
made by twisting palm leaf around a wire, bent the required shape. 
One should also be made to be fastened in the center of the. cover. 
Tie the cover to the basket on the side you fasten your rings. This 
can be developed in very large size for a clothes-basket, by using 



ZIRCON, TETRAGONAL SYSTEM. IO3 

heavy straw with rattan. It would try your patience, of course, to 
weave it ; but like all other good things that work develops, it would 
pay you. 

" What is it Guy ? I see you want to ask a question ? " 

" I want to ask you why the Egyptians built so many great 
pyramids, and all alike," he replied. , 

" I know that if I have never been to a back-east school," inter- 
rupted Tod. " They built them to bur}^ their kings in." 

"Well of course they did!" responded Guy; "every one knows 
that. But why did they always build just that shape?" 

" There goes another corner," said Miss Lovechild, laughing. 
" What you wonder, Guy, is only what many others have wondered 
before you ; though no one is sure what they were made for, yet 
there are some very probable reasons assigned for their purpose. 
•One is, that the}' might have been connected with the ancient wor- 
ship, and used for astronomical purposes also, as astronomy was 
always associated with the worship of the ancient Egyptians. This 
seems quite probable, as the pyramids are so placed that the sides 
exactly face the four cardinal points, and the entrance to them all, 
is from the north side, down an inclined passageway, from the 
hottom of which it has been calculated that the pole-star, at the time 
of their erection, could be seen, so exactly was the inclination of the 
plane calculated. Then the obliquity, or slant, of the pyramids, is 
such that it corresponds with the slant of the sun's ra3's at its 
summer solstice. One meaning given the word ' pyramid ' is that of 
a flame or ray of light. If you notice the sun some time when it is 
' drawing water,' as it is commonly called, you will readil}' see that 
the rays have a pyramidal form. In other nations where there has 
been sun-worship, the pyramidal form is prominent in their temples. 
As the Egyptians were especially given to worshiping the sun, it is 




\ 



t 


'S 


^ 


\ 



ZIRCON, TETRAGONAL SYSTEM. 105 

ver}? probable that tbe p3^ramids were in some manner nsed in its 
worship. 

" But the pyramids have other points of interest besides those 
gen^erally mentioned. They are monuments of labor, and represent 
the work of a nation of slaves. We are told b\' Herodotus that it 
took one million men twent}^ j^ears to build the pyramid of Cheops. 
If you have ever read the ' Ethics of the Dust,' you will remem- 
ber the impressive lesson that Ruskin draws from the Pyramid of 
^schylus, which he makes represent servile work, as it was built 
of millions of sun-dried brick, made bj' Egyptian slaves, to show the 
power of a monarch who could have such a working force at his. 
command. He fancies a dream in which he makes Ptah — Egypt's 
beetle-headed god, who sjanbolized mere phj-sical force — the artificer 
of this pyramid, and Neith, who represented thought and wisdom, 
reproves him for his soulless labor. It shows in, a most charming 
wa}' the true thought of work, and vou must read it, if j^ou have 
not, at your first opportunit}^, for there are Ptah worshipers outside of 
Egypt." 

" Why, Miss Lovechild, there is no idol-worship in this country," 
interrupted Prudence. 

'■ What did people worship. Prudence, when they made these 
idols? It was not the idols themselves. The}' were mere symbols of 
the force, or power, that attracted the people, and this power dis- 
played in different forms of nature, belonged only to God. So the 
sin of the world has been in separating the attributes of the true 
God, and worshiping them individually under various t3-pes. Wisdom 
personified was to the Romans, Minerva; to the Grecians, Athena; 
to the Egyptians, Neith ; and to the lovers of God it is ' Christ the 
power of God, and the wisdom of God.' In him were inseparably 
bound the ivisdom io make and the pozver lo make ; for ' \\-ithout Him 

6 



Io6 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

was not anything made that was made.' Separating the knowledge 
of making from the making itself, has naturally resulted in forming 
the head and hands of society, which have existed since there was a 
nation. Every country has its hands in its slaves, coolies, peasants, 
and working men, symbolized b}' the blind Ptah of Egypt, as ignorant 
or eyeless labor. And every nation has its head, whether it is called 
nobility, high caste, or capitalist. And so labor and wisdom that 
should have gone hand in hand, have fought, and made misery for 
ages, nor can we expect anything else till we combine wisdom and 
power as they were given us ; for what is separated in the individual, 
will be separated in the classes. 

" The ancient deities, as the}' were worshiped by different nations, 
had, besides their central, or main, attribute, usually some distinctive 
national attribute, or some attribute peculiar to the place or time 
when it was worshiped. So I fancy we can see a modern Ptah. In 
the long intervening centuries, he has developed a commercial side, 
and becomes quite an international deity. But he is as blind to every- 
thing but his side of the dollar, as was Egypt's beetle-headed image. 
He works not because he loves to work, but because he has to work ; 
and he values work not for its own sake, but for its return in dollars 
and cents. Nothing is of any value that does not show its dollar 
equivalent. In his right hand he holds some scales ; they were not 
borrowed from Justice. In one side is a human brain, a feather's 
weight to the dollars that drop the opposite balance. Instead of 
wearing his Egyptian work-apron, he has wrapped himself in glaring 
advertisements, in which Ptah the Great is magnified ; and all the 
people from the least unto the greatest, bow the knee and cry, 
' Great is Ptah of the ; ' finish to national taste. 

" Now we all know that this Ptah exists. His devotees surround 
.us; they fill our houses; we meet them wherever we go. They, 



ZIRCOX, TETRAGONAL SYSTEM. 107 

cook for lis, not because they enjoy cooking, or like to make such 
combinations of food as will give us the best health, or because we 
need food, but because they need mone}'. So they make our gar- 
ments, not because they enjoy producing something that shall be 
artistic and comfortable for us to wear, but the}' mechanically throw 
together a pattern that shall meet our requirements, so we may give 
them our dollars. And so the}^ build our houses, not that a beautiful 
structure shall be raised which will give pleasure to all who see it, 
but to build their fortunes. Thus they furnish our homes, not with 
beautiful thoughts worked out in carpets, draperies, and linen, but 
with mechanicall}' woven patterns, with which they expect to weave 
a silver lining for their own pockets. The furniture they make us, 
merely meets the primitive need, — soniething whereon to rest our- 
selves when weary, and wherein to keep our possessions. It is 
turned out by machinery according to the latest fad, with as little 
cost and trouble to the manufacturers and as little real value as they 
can put into it and hold our custom. 

"Then there are little Ptah worshipers, too; small editions of 
the parental, though. There were some in a class of mine once, one 
of whom, a boy, looked up from his sloyd bench, and asked, ' How 
much can I sell this paper-knife for when it is done ? ' — ' Possibly 
for twenty-five cents,' I replied ; ' but you are not making it to sell ; 
it is paying you acute brains, and skill of hand, for the effort you 
are putting into it.' Again, a youngster asked as he was toiling over 
a ball cap he was trying to sew, ' What 's the good of doing this 
anyhow? M3' father can buy me a better cap than I can make, for 
only a quarter.' ' And can he buy you a cap full of brains thrown 
in besides?' I inquired. 'They are something that I have never 
seen for sale, though I know that it is sometimes expected that for a 
certain compensation, teachers shall put their brains into their pupils' 



I08 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

heads. But that is not the way that brains grow. They come only 
by hard work like all other good things.' Now if we do not wish to 
become Ptah worshipers of any sort, we must make labor and capital 
meet in ourselves, as head and hand work, thought supplemented by 
execution, then there will be fewer Ptah worshipers, big or little, to 
spend their labor for that which satisfieth not, for they will have 
heard Wisdom's voice calling, ' Receive my instruction, and not 
silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.'" 




•^i' 










X 

o 

_J 

G 
z 

a 

o 
z 

< 

H 

m 

< 

CO 

ai 

_I 

o 



f- 



XII. 

TOURMALIN, HEXAGONAL SYSTEM. 

FORM STUDY — THE TRIANGULAR PRISM. 

WHAT prett}- black prisms ! " exclaimed the class, as Miss Love- 
child held up a specimen of black tourmalin embedded in 
quartz. 

" Taking an end view of a prism, it looks like the triangles on 
the corners of our bonbon box, only these cur\-e out," said Prudence. 

" Yes, this is a convex triangular prism," said Miss Lovechild^ 
" like the equilateral triangles you constructed before you cut off the 
arcs. This is the iirst prism we have studied, that has not had a 
right-angled base of some sort. If I could cut it open and spread it 
out on paper, it would look like this (drawing a rectangular plane, 
4" long by 2%" wide, divided horizontally into three equal parts). 
These long narrow parallelograms represent the sides of the prism. 
On each end of the middle one, construct an equilateral triangle as 
you did in the drawing of your bonbon box. These are the trian- 
gular ends of your box. Measure off one inch from one end of your 
rectangular plane, with one of the triangular ends for the cover of 
the box, which is held in place by an inside lining like your last 
models. Cover the ends with gilt or silver paper and the sides with 
some sort of fancy paper. The covering for the sides is cut in one 
piece with a margin allowed for folding under ; the joining should 
always be made on an edge." 

"What shall I do with it when it is done?" queried Tod, ''I 

don't do mj^ hair up." 

[Ill] 



112 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

" Perliaps your mother does," said Miss Lovecliild. " We are not 
supposed to make these things for our own use alone. But if you 
must have something that you can use for yourself, make this a 
little larger around and longer, and use it, as a case for pencils." 

"That suits me exactly," said Tod, "I am always breaking the 
points off." 

'' Your basket-form for this is a waste-basket, too ; but a standard 
one instead of one that is hung to your desk. Make your form a 
large triangular prism that shall measure lo" on each side, and 
stand 14" high. Place your warp strands from the top down each 
edge of your form, and up the center of the opposite face, then fill in 
the space between these with other strands brought around opposite 
sides. Begin at a corner to weave in your woof strand, and weave 
plainly one third of the distance to the top ; then you can vary your 
weave to suit your taste, either by weaving in a different color or by 
leaving a few of the warp strands unwoven for inserting ribbon. 
Either is pretty for the center third of the basket ; the remaining 
third should be plain like the first. The top is pretty finished by 
weaving ribbon over the edge. A triangular piece of cardboard 
should be cut for the bottom, to prevent the scraps of paper from 
falling on the floor, as the bottom is open weaving. You can develop 
the same form in different proportions and heavier material, for an 
umbrella holder by using willow or rattan for the ribs, and coarse hat 
straw for the woof. A triangular tin pan should be substituted for 
the pasteboard bottom, which any tinman could easily make for you ; 
and you would have a very convenient umbrella holder for standing 
in the corner of a hall way." 

" Does this form have anj^ special use of its own ? " asked Frank. 

"I know," said Flossy; "may I tell him, Miss Lovechild? 
There are so few things that I do know." Miss Lovechild nodded 



TOURMALIN, HEXAGONAL SYSTEM. II3 

her assent, and Floss_v continued, "It's the form they make glass 
prisms to show the spectrum of colors, and it is the form of the 
hollow glass prisms that thej' put into our kaleidoscopes that make 
such pretty designs." 

" Yes, Flossy has given the most common uses of the form. 
The triangular faces of the ends, we often see in church ornamenta- 
tion. The form is sometimes developed b}- three fishes or three 
leaves so arranged that their contour presents this convex triangle tO' 
represent the trinity. Three is a sacred number, and so you will 
often see it in various combinations in church ornamentation." 

" I always wondered at some of the strange car^•ings in our big 
cathedrals at home," said Flossy. " I did not know that the}^ all 
meant something, though." 

"They are only beautiful as thej- do mean something," replied 
Miss Lovechild. "The object of real ornament is not to surround 
ourselves with meaningless forms, but with the expression of beautiful 
thoughts, to give us pleasure and make us better. Our average 
homes usually express onl}- the necessities of living. They are 
simply places to eat, sleep, and work in ;■ and if that is all there is 
to living, they certainly ' fill the bill,' as Tod says, which they proba- 
bly do for the man}- people who only live to be alive. Thert there 
are many who think it is a sin to have anything else in a home but 
that which pertains to the necessities of living. They do not know- 
what ornament means. They are people who would trample on 
daisies and violets, and carefully turn aside that they might not step 
on a potato vine, because they could cat potatoes, and only look at 
daisies, thus showing that the}- enjo}- the pleasure of eating, more 
than of reading a beautiful thought that God wrote for them in the 
gold and white of the dais}-. The greatest student of men and 
things, perhaps, who ever lived, was Solomon, because he went to 




..'^J 



-rf^J 



'^ 



CVJ 



f>3 




^ ^^'g• . 





1 — 


\ 



/t 



^ 
■^ 



TOURMALIN, HEXAGONAL SYSTEM. II5 

God for his wisdom. He tells us that ' as a man thinketh in his 
heart, so is he.' Now what we see is the food with which we feed 
our minds, so that our minds or hearts are composed of what we 
look at, just as our bodies are composed of what we eat. So we 
must feed our thoughts with beautiful things, if we would have beau- 
tiful minds. 

"But can't we do that," put in Prudence, "by reading good 
books? They are so plentiful." 

"What is reading?" inquired Miss Lovechild. 

" Why, everybody knows," said Prudence. " Don't you think I 
know?" 

u "That is just it exactly, my dear," replied Miss Lovechild; 
" because if you did, you would not have asked me that question. 
So I shall tell you that it is simply looking at some one else's 
thoughts, expressed in words, about what they have seen. It's like 
looking at God's beautiful sunlight through stained glass windows. 
It is colored by the window you see it through. And while it may 
be a very beautiful window, to get the life of the light, we must 
have nothing between us and it. Our minds are much better fed 
if surrounded by the beautiful objects themselves, than by read- 
ing a written description of them. I prefer the perfume of a real 
white rose to the bottled extract that passes under that name, 
don't you?" 

" Then would n't \o\\ have us read ? " inquired Guy. 

" Certainly ; the question was not as to whether we should read, 
but whether reading should take the place of beautiful surroundings. 
Nothing feeds our minds as looking at God's thoughts just as he 
gave them to us." 

"But, Miss Lovechild," interrupted Esther, "suppose you didn't 
know how to read them." 



Il6 A vSCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

"You can take up a little dingy stone, and see as many won- 
derful things in it as Alice did in Wonderland." 

" But I can't see anything but a dirty piece of ore, till you 
have told me." 

"Then I suppose other people's thoughts about things will have 
to serve as primers to teach you how to read them yourself," Miss 
Lovechild answered laughingly. 

" But how are we going to know what things are true orna- 
ment?" asked Guy. 

"Let us take a peep at the meaning of the word first," said 
Miss Lovechild. " To ornament is to make beautiful ; and beautiful 
is defined to be that quality that pleases all the higher tastes of the 
mind and imagination. Now what is it that all of the great artists 
have produced that have that quality ? sculptures and paintings of 
what? — The things that God made for us to look at — truthful repre- 
sentations of nature, in a form and color that can be carried with us, 
or representations of spiritual truths in the symbolism of nature's 
forms, as in religious paintings. The dove symbolizes the Holy 
Spirit ; the lily, purity ; and so on indefinitely. Ornamentation is 
true in proportion as it represents to us the original inspiration. I 
see these rare mountain flowers, for instance, with which God's eood- 
ness has brightened up these otherwise dreary rocks and barren 
mountainsides. How I wish I could look at their beauty, and God's 
goodness in it all the time, and make them ornaments of my home ! 
But God has not given me the power to create the real thing ; but 
he has given me the power to make a cop}? that shall keep before 
me the loveliness of the original. So I paint a frieze of these wild 
flowers to ornament my room when I go home ; and it will he a 
triie ornament in proportion as ni}- painting is true to the original. 
True beauty originates in nature." 



TOURMALIN, HEXAGONAL SYSTEM. 11 J 

" But,", suggested Prudence, "wouldn't it be a truer ornament to 
have the flowers themselves pressed and prettily mounted on card- 
board, with their stems tied with ribbon ? " 

" I will answer you with a question," said Miss Lovechild. 
"Which is prettier, a skeleton or a portrait?" 

"A portrait certainly," answered Prudence. 

" But would not the skeleton be truer ? Probably both it and 
the pressed flowers would be truer for anatomical purposes ; but 
neither would inspire with the thought of the original. But again, 
the painting or other reproduction of nature or thought, may be true 
to the original, and yet not be a true ornament, as its object may be 
simply a display of the artist's technic, as would be the case when 
an artist takes for a subject a wretched-faced criminal or a person 
undergoing physical torture, simply to show his skill at portrayal of 
severe emotions. Such a picture might be a great work of art, but 
it would not be a true ornament, for there would be nothing in it 
to inspire the higher sensibilities with a sense of beauty. The onl}^ 
influence of such a picture would be to excite admiration for the 
skill of the painter, and horror of the subject." 

" Then should any one paint people or things that are not 
beautiful?" questioned Flossy. 

" I think the beautiful should always be made the subject of the 
picture — its h'g/it ; and the evil should only come into it as a 
shadow to heighten the effect of the light ; for example, in pictures 
of Christ's trial, the evil faces that surround him only heighten the 
wonderful goodness and peaceful beauty that radiates from his face. 
That is very different 'from a picture where the subject is evil." 

"Isn't there any ornament, then, but good paintings and sculp- 
ture?" asked Frank. "I thought that vases and such things were 
ornaments, too." 



IlS A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

" Bvery thing with whicli we furnish our homes can be orna- 
mental," Miss Ivovechild replied ; " but few of them are. We need 
only remember to have a beautiful thought expressed in everything, 
to make things ornamental. Vases may or may not be ornamental. 
I suppose you refer to the many little knickknacks that pass under 
that name, few of which are really ornamental. The purpose of a 
vase is to hold flowers. The flowers are to do the ornamenting, so 
the simpler the vase the better. I know, some regard the vase as the 
ornament, and place that where it will be seen, using the flowers 
as mere accessories ; but the true thought for a vase is simply a 
setting for the flowers, so the flowers and not the vase should be 
conspicuous." 

"But," interrupted Tod, "why aren't tumblers then as good as 
anything else ? and what is the use of having vases at all ? " 

" Because tumblers are made to drink from, and are not a 
suitable setting for anything so lovely as flowers, which represent 
God's choicest thoughts. We show respect to the Maker when 
we show regard for his works ! It would be worse than framing 
Raphael's Madonna in pine boards. A vase should be opaque to 
conceal the stems of the flowers. The enameled porcelains in rich, 
solid colors, are a beautiful setting for colors ; but even the little ten 
and fifteen-cent rose bowls, in delicately tinted colors, are pretty as 
well as inexpensive." 

"What is it, Frank? I see you have something on j^our mind." 

" I was thinking that these plain geometrical forms that we are 
making are beautiful ; but they do not express anything that I can 
think of," he said, with a puzzled look. 

" No, of course the}^ do not express any particular sentiment or 
object in nature; but they may express abstract qualities that are 
pleasing or otherwise. See these three lines that I am making ? 



TOURMALIN, HEXAGONAL SYSTEM. II9 

This first is an uncertain zigzag ; the second is a straight line, made 
with even pressure of the pencil ; the third is curved, and sometimes 
called a line of beauty. Now which gives you the most pleasure?" 

"The curved line," the children all said; "and next to that 
the straight." 

"And how about this zigzag?" 

" It makes me feel cross," said Prudence. 

"It puts me out of joint," Frank said. 

" Then these lines must express something, or they would affect 
you alike. You see it is abstract qualities they express. This 
straight line represents strength, because the arrangement of matter 
to produce strength always makes these outlines, and to produce 
beauty falls more or less into curves. You never saw a flower with 
straight outlines. Disorganized matter is always a shapeless mass of 
zigzag contour. So the bare lines, j'ou see, express abstract qualities, 
and so may geometrical designs express abstract qualities. Manj^ 
regard a love for the beautiful as something to be suppressed instead 
of a necessity to the perfect development of our natures. Many have 
so long lived for the necessities of life, that they can see nothing 
else. God would not have filled this world with beautiful things, had 
he not intended us to enjoy them. He even put it in the nature 
of some birds to love ornamentation. The bower-birds of Australia 
make low, half-round bowers of twigs and grasses, and decorate them 
with bits of shells, feathers, or any bright trinket they can find ; 
and then chase each other through these little bowers in pla}^, evi- 
dently thinking them very fine art galleries." 

" How about people so poor that they cannot afford to buy beau- 
tiful things ? " asked Gustave. 

" There are many beautiful things that are not expensive, Gus. 
Good taste can make a beautiful home out of things that are inex- 



I20 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

pensive. People need only to apply sense in the matter of ornament. 
Many will spend money for a bright chromo that expresses nothing 
bitt a jargon of colors, or an ill-proportioned medley of objects, when 
a fine photo of some beautiful scenery might be had for less money, 
and be of real value. Beautiful house plants can be had for almost 
nothing; and no home need be bare with a tasteful arrangement of 
shells, minerals, books, and photos. It all lies in the person, Gus; 
anybody who will walk on a daisy and spare a potato plant, is not 
likely to make anything beautiful, because he cannot see anything 
beautiful. I heard of a farmer once, who stood before a fine painting 
of the Tivoli Falls, in Italy, brought from Europe. As a mere 
accessory, in one corner of the painting was a group of cattle and 
peasants about to ford the stream below the falls. He stood medita- 
tively before the scene, evidently impressed, and then remarked, as he 
passed on, " Them 's the long-horned breed of cattle." That was all 
the Tivoli Falls meant to him. Such people would probable prefer 
the chromos accompanying various patent medicines, and any little 
gewgaws that had a bit of gilt and color, just as the Indians like 
calico and gilded beads. In fact there is altogether too much of the 
calico and bright-bead style of decorating done by people who ought 
to know better. Such decorating is worse than useless, as it wastes 
time and money, and has no influence for good on our lives. So 
remember that ornamentation is true and beautiful as the purpose 
behind it is true and beautiful, and we can only appreciate it as we 
are true ourselves. 




< 

u. 
o 

H 

o 

E 
Q. 

a 
z 

<; 

Of 

u 

a 
-J 
o 

E 
O 

o 

a 
5 

o 

Of 



XIII. 

MUSCOVITE, RHOMBIC SYSTEM. 

FORM STUDY — THE RHOMBUS. 

WHAT do you suppose she will have us do uext?" remarked Tod 
to Tad, as thev waited for the others to come. 
"There's uo telling," said Tad. "I can't imagine what we 
will make out of that six-sided crj'stal, can 3^ou ? " 

" No, I have n't the least bit of an idea about me. Some folks 
seem to be made of ideas ; I wish I was." 

" It is a very easy matter if you studj' everything you see," said 
Miss Lovechild, coming in just then with the others. "Now who 
will tell me what this diamond is, embedded in this piece of quartz?" 

" I believe I know what that is," said Tod. 

" Of course we do," said Tad, " that 's isinglass, and there is a 
whole rock of it near here." 

" What is the other name for it ? " inquired Miss Lovechild. 

"Mica," said Guy. 

" And who knows the other name for this form we call a 
'diamond'? — It is a rhombus, and belongs to the rhombic division of 
the mica family. Now what shall we make of it?" 

" I can't think of anything but a wall-pocket," said Flossy, " and 
they are such common things." 

" What would you think of making a photo frame out of one ? 
See, here is one that I have made," sa'id Miss Lovechild. " I suppose 
Flossy would call this a common thing, too ; but most useful things 
are common. We can varj^ them, though, b}- finding new ways of 

[1231 



124 -^ SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

making them. This, a-ou see, is just two diamonds folded together, 
and glued; the photo is slipped in place from the top, just behind 
this heart-shaped opening. The drawing consists of two large equi- 
lateral triangles, one constructed on the base of another, and in the 
center a small equilateral triangle, out of which a heart is constructed, 
and cut out to form the opening for the photo. The drawing is only 
a repetition of what you learned in drawing the bonbon box. I have 
covered my frame with embossed gilt paper, but \'ou can iise your 
own taste, only remember that we learned yesterday about true orna- 
ment. The woven form for this is so simple that you can almost 
see .how it is done without being told. The diamond is outlined on 
cardboard, and then the strands are placed across it diagonally from 
one side. The other strands are woven in diagonally, and secured on 
the edges by a narrow plait. A wide plait of twelve strands is made 
to hold the broom in place, which is fastened to the diamond a little 
below the center ; then a bow and loop of ribbon finishes it at the 
top. It is prettiest made out of straw that is flat and thin ; other- 
wise it is apt to be cumbersome. What is it. Flossy? you seem to 
have a very important idea that yon want us to know." 

" I wanted to ask you if I could not cover my frame with water- 
color paper, and paint on it. Wouldn't that be pretty?" 

"That depends on how well you can paint, and whose picture 
you are going to put in the frame. If it is a picture of your 
father or grandfather, it would hardly look appropriate to see his 
strong face in a dainty, bluebell painted frame, though it would be 
pretty for a child's or young girl's face." 

"Then I guess I will make my frame as I want it, and find a 
photo to fit it," Flossy replied. 

" No, no. Flossy, that is wrong, for the frame is to be the set- 
ting for the picture." 



MUSCOVITE, RHOMBIC SYSTEM. 1 25 

" Then I know what I will do. Papa is going to take a photo 
of our university, and I will make the frame for that. Now what 
shall I paint on it ? " 

" Think of something pretty that grows around here," replied 
Miss Lovechild. 

" Chipmunks and pine-cones," suggested Tod and Tad. 

" Prickly pears," said Esther. 

"Pine trees," added Prudence. 

"01 know," said Flossy, " painters' brushes. They grow here 
and are pretty and have a Western look, too. Then they are bright, 
and the photo will be rather dark." 

" Yes, that is a good idea," said Miss Lovechild. " But now sup- 
pose you had decided to paint your frame with greenhouse roses ; 
how would they look for a setting for a log cabin ? Don't you see 
how ridiculous such a combination would be? Yet we see just such 
absurd things done all the time by people who try to ornament." 

" But I think it is dreadfullj^ hard always to stop and think 
whether you are doing just the right thing or not," said Esther. "I 
would rather just go ahead and make what I think is pretty, whether 
other people like it or not." 

" You will be perfectly safe in doing so, if you learn to like 
pretty things," rejoined Miss Ivovechild. "I suppose most people like 
their own things, because they look at them so constantly that they 
have formed the habit of liking them. Our eyes have the habit of 
liking best what they see most frequently, just as boys, after repeated 
trials, become fond of smoking, though it is distasteful at first ; and 
we all learn to like various foods that are distasteful to us at first, 
by continuing to eat them. If we did not have habits of seeing, I 
do not suppose that we would have to be governed by any such thing 
as fashion. 



MUSCOVITE, RHOMBIC SYSTEM. 1 27 

" Do you remember in Charles Kingsley's ' Water Babies,' how 
one little caddis fastened a long straw to her tail, and then all the 
little caddises in the pool Avere not content till they had straws on 
their tails, too ? This is Mr. Kingsley's bright way of showing how 
foolish ladies are sometimes, — if one wears a trained dress they all 
must. Now there is a reason for this like everything else, if we will 
take the trouble to think it out. You will notice that a new style 
always has some distinctive feature to catch the eye, — something 
that the eye will form the habit of noticing. Then where it is 
lacking, the eye sees something amiss. Thus it learns to require 
certain styles, no matter how utterly senseless they may be. So it 
is with savages, who manifest this habit in various fantastic decora- 
tions of the body, such as tattooing, wearing nose rings and earrings> 
piercing the lips with bone rings, flattening their heads, or com- 
pressing their feet, as the case may be. The mind requires what is 
seen. Civilized nations are only a step in advance of them, for they 
yield to this same habit of seeing, by the ever varying fashions of 
their clothing. They distort that instead of their bodies ; and there 
is scarcely any one who arranges the clothing with an eye to the 
natural artistic proportions and contour of the body. One season, to 
be fashionable one must have arms as large as the body. Another 
season the arms appear as though they had been melted and run 
into the sleeves when soft, so perfectly must the sleeve fit the arm. 
Then again, one season the whole feminine world turns street- 
sweepers, and trail their skirts through filth of every sort. At 
another time the skirts must be short enough to show the ankle. 
One season, broad effects are ' the thing,' and we grow suddenly 
stout with crinoline and bustles ; another, nothing will satisf}' the 
demand of the eye but clinging draperies, so scant that we nearly 
break our necks when stepping from a street-car or a carriage. 



128 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

When the popular eye discovered that full sleeves, increasing the 
breadth of the shoulders, were prettier, everybody became broad- 
shouldered. Young girls measured from shoulder to shoulder as 
much as their fathers ! 

" Now don't you think it worth the study to discover the caiise 
of the peculiar affection of our eyes that makes a huge sleeve pretty 
one time, and a close-fitting one pretty another time? It is the 
same thing applied to our eyes, that makes a man like to drink till 
he is intoxicated, — simply a habit. Repetition is a law of our beings. 
We want to look again at what we have seen once ; we want to taste 
again what we have tasted once ; and we want to do again what we 
have done once. The enemy of all right-doing and right-tasting and 
right-seeing., knows this ; and so he influences us to form habits of 
wrong-doing ; our sight is perverted as well as our taste. We hear 
much from temperance societies about keeping our boys and men 
from forming the liquor habit, and it is doubtless needed, for we hear 
much of the desolated homes and ruined families, made by drunken 
fathers. But I think that societies are equally needed to help the 
women dress temperately. Think of the husbands and fathers that 
are worked half to death, and are often tempted into forgery and 
stealing in order to keep up the family purse, so the wives and 
daughters may keep in style ! 

" How many women and girls do you suppose would be willing 
to sign the following dress pledge ? ' / promise not to dress myself 
i7i a manner to make my form appear abnormal in any respect., or 
that will hamper in any zaay the free moveme7its of my body., or that 
will require an extravagant and unnecessary amount of material.^ Are 
you brave enough to do right though all the world does wrong ? " 




H 

< 

03 



-J 

O 
Of 

II 

o 
to 

C 
< 

z 

o 
o 
<c 

X 

01 

E 



XIV. 

BERYL, HEXAGONAL SYSTEM. 

FORM STUDY — THE HEXAGONAL PRISM. 

TAKE six of the triangular prisms j'ou have made, and arrange 
them around a central point ; then look in this cabinet, and see 
if \^ou can find a form that corresponds to it. Yes, Gus has 
one, and Esther another. They are the same forms, but different 
minerals. Esther's has a pyramidal cap, and is a quartz crystal. 
The one Gus has is a simple prism, and is beryl. You see his is 
very nearly opaque, and has a greenish tinge. You are most of you 
familiar with this, as it is a form that we see everywhere in archi- 
tecture and ornament ; the end faces are hexagons, that means ' six- 
sided,' and these crystals belong to the hexagonal system. It is 
made up by arranging three diamonds or six triangular prisms 
around a common center. I have developed the form for a music-roll, 
though it is a convenient shape for many other articles that you may 
like to make sometime. The drawing is much like that of your tri- 
angular prism, only this has six parallelograms instead of three, 
and around the one equilateral triangle, you are to describe a circle, 
with its vertex for a center, and space the circumference into six 
equal parts. Connecting these points with straight lines will give 
you the hexagonal ends. Cover the ends first with gilt paper, and 
the sides with leatherette or cloth. Two of the parallelograms are 
left free from the ends, you see, to fold over for a cover. A ribbon 
is fastened to the back by paper fasteners, and brought around, and 
tied to hold the cover down. 

[■3>] 




c 



^D 




BERYL, HEXAGONAL .SYSTEM. 1 33 

" The basket-form of this model is different in proportion, being 
shorter and larger around than the music-roll. A basket 4" deep, 
and 3" on each side of the hexagon, is pretty for worsteds. Cut 
eighteen strands of sufficient length to reach around the basket, 
allowing six strands to a side ; interweave where they cross in the 
center, and you will have a pretty six-pointed star for the bottom of 
the basket. The cover is woven like the bottom, and the strands are 
held in place by the narrow plait on the edge. Fasten the cover to 
the basket by knots of ribbon. This is also pretty for collars and 
cuffs, to match your ribbon-basket." 

" Can't we make the music-roll whole instead of open on one 
side ? " asked Flossy ; " it would be so much easier to make, and we 
could make an inside case to hold the music which would slide into 
this outside cover. We could fasten the ribbon around just the same, 
and tie, so that it would look as though it opened on the side 
like a roll." 

" Yes, you could, but ' it would be working out a bad idea 
though. Flossy. You would be pretending to open your roll on the 
side, when it really opened on the end. If you prefer an opening at 
the end make it that way, but do not put the ribbon on." 

" But it would look prettier," replied Flossy. 

" An untruth never looks well," replied Miss Lovechild. " There 
are many of them worked out I know, in architecture and house 
furnishings, but they are always disagreeable to people of a true taste. 
Take, for instance, the false windows. It often happens that windows 
on a house do not correspond, and to make a lower window corre- 
spond with an upper, would sometimes mean cutting through a stair- 
case ; so instead, a false casing is made, and blinds hung, and to 
all appearance there is a window unless j^ou try to look out of it." 

"But what is the harm?" said Frank. 



134 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

" The harm lies in accustoming ourselves to falsities of any- 
kind. You remember that we talked day before yesterday of how 
our minds were made of what we looked at. So if we surround our- 
selves with false devices, we grow unconsciously to make no differ- 
ence between truth and untruth. ' Murder will out,' it is said ; and 
so will lies usually, whether they be spoken or worked. I was once 
invited to spend the evening with some slight acquaintances. In the 
course of a very pleasant chat, I noticed what was presumably an 
organ or an upright piano, though the characteristics of neither 
were very pronounced. I was about to ask for some music, but 
having an uncomfortable feeling about the nondescript article, I 
refrained, for which I was sincerely thankful, as I afterward found it 
to be a bed. Imagine my feelings had I asked my acquaintance for 
a selection from Schumann or Beethoven to be rendered on her bed- 
stead. At another time I had occasion to wait in a parlor where 
stood apparently a good-sized book-case, and I proceeded to help 
myself to a book, when a wire bed-spring met my astonished gaze. 
Again, in a dining-room, I was decoyed into an apparent china-closet, 
to find myself face to face with the inevitable bed-spring. Now if it 
must be that necessity shall force the presence of a bed into parlors 
and dining-rooms, which should only find a place in sleeping apart- 
ments, do let it be in the recognizable form of a couch or lounge, 
that can be unfolded for the desired accommodation, which would save 
the embarrassment of attempting to find books and dishes in beds, 
or of asking for music from wire springs." 

"But should we never use folding beds. Miss Lovechild?" inquired 
Prudence. 

" In a bedchamber certainly, when lack of room makes a folding 
bed convenient, or makes possible the presence of two beds. One 
does not look for china-closets, book-cases, and pianos in bedrooms, 



BERYL, HEXAGONAL SYSTEM. 135 

however, so they are perfectly legitimate there, though the easily 
aired genuine article is much preferable. Sometimes one sees appar- 
ent cases of drawers, and attempts to open them only to find them- 
selves pulling at a thing of the imagination. Such a bed is an 
imposition anywhere. Then we see little falsities in dress. We may 
innocentl}' ask a lady friend to remove her jacket supposing it to be 
an outer wrap, only to find it is one of those pretend-to-be-what-it-is- 
not things, worn for ' looks,' with a false front. So our dresses are 
finished with buttons for trimming, when the primary use of buttons 
was that of holding our garments together. So also false materials 
are used, and false jewelry. Cloth that looks like wool is pronounced 
'just as good.' Plate that looks like gold is 'just as good.' Even 
our food does not escape these falsities, for the market is loaded with 
adulterations that doubtless look 'just as good' as the genuine, and 
are much cheaper. There is a mill for making marble dust in an 
Eastern State, that cannot supply the demand for marble dust to 
adulterate flour. You see it makes it weigh more, and it is so soft 
and white that 'it looks just as good,' and flour enough is put with 
it to make it taste all right, and so it passes, and the conscienceless 
seller is remorseless, as long as the public demands nothing more 
than that an article shall appear all right and cost little ! 

" You see in all these false devices, whether of furnishing, cloth- 
ing, or food, appearance is made the standard of value instead 
of actual worthy and if 3^ou do not form the habit of using falsities 
in little things — even a music-roll — yovi will abhor them in every- 
thing." 




XV. 

AMETHYST, HEXAGONAL SYSTEM. 

FORM STUDY — HEXAGONAL PYRAMID. 

'ILL 3'ou please go to the cabinet, Prudence, and select a 
six-sided pyramid? Flossy may find one, too," said Miss 
Lovechild. 

" Oh how perfectly lovely ! Here are a whole group of violet- 
colored ones. What are they ? " asked Flossy. 

" Amethyst crystals," replied Miss Lovechild. 

"Really? Is this the kind they use in jewelry?" asked 
Prudence. 

" Yes, only a more common variety. And what have you, 
Prudence? " 

" I don't know what it is," she said, " only it is like dark quartz, 
and is a short, six-sided prism with a little pyramidal cap." 

" That is smoky topaz, and is like the quartz crystal Gus 
selected yesterday, only it is smoky instead of clear. Now what shall 
we make? " 

"I haven't the least idea," said Prudence; "these pointed shapes 
puzzle me so." 

" You see them ver}^ often, though. It is a common form in 
architectural ornament ; nearly all school towers and church spires 
are this form elongated. I have used it in two ways," continued Miss 
Lovechild, " one bj' inverting it, and weaving a flower basket, and 
the other by making it on a short base, for a pen and stamp box. I 

fi36] 




X 

o 
ca 

a 

< 
f- 
t/i 

a 
z 

< 

I- 
< 

09 
< 

a 

i 

< 

> 

a, 

-J 
< 
z 

o 
o 
< 

u 

r 



AMETHYST, HEXAGONAL SYSTEM. 139 

have divided the inside of the box by partitions. It makes a pretty- 
little desk ornament, besides being useful. The pyramid should be 
covered with gilt or silver paper as it reflects the light so prettil}', 
and the base is best covered with leatherette. 

" You notice that the drawing for the box itself is precisely like 
the drawing for the six-sided prism, only shortened, and it has a 
lining like the bonbon box for holding the cover in place. The 
pyramidal top is made by taking the slant height of the pyramid as 
a radius, and describing a circle with it. Then space your compasses 
the width of one side of your box, and point off six spaces on the 
circle. Connect these with straight lines, and on one draw a rect- 
angle representing one side of your cover. Extend this till of sufficient 
length to fold around the pyramid, after it is united. This should be 
covered with leatherette like the box. Be particular that the cover 
and the box are perfectly joined. They should be hinged together 
by ribbon. The basket-form is made like the cover of the box with 
a radius of 4" for the slant height, and 3" for one side of the base. 
The warp strands are crossed at the bottom, and radiate out to the 
top. The woof strands should be of split palm leaf and woven from 
the vertex of the pyramid to the base. Two handles crossing each 
other are pretty arched over the top. They can be made of the 
palm leaf twisted with the fine palm leaf The success of this model 
will depend upon the nicety with which you weave the pyramid. The 
strands should be firmly pressed down to the vertex of the pj^ramid, 
and secured with pins as you work, and they should also be creased 
as you turn the angles, else your pyramid will have the effect of 
a cone." 

" Oh dear ! " exclaimed Esther, " I do hate to be particular. I 
like things just as well if they don't come together so that they are 
geometrically exact." 



140 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

" That is tlie reason there are usually two or three of your shoe 
buttons off, and one or two of your dress buttons ; and why your 
hair ribbon is always untied," said Prudence. " I like to have things 
'just so,'" she added, "and not all sixes and sevens." 

" Corners ! " interrupted Miss Lovechild. " I think, however, if 
not one of j^ou should tell me which models you had made, I could 
give them all to the right owners, just because I know your likes 
and dislikes so well. We are all very apt to reflect our tastes in our 
work ; in fact, everything we make is just a character-graph of our- 
selves. I always imagined that ' the house that Jack built,' that we 
used to hear so much about when babies, must have been a very 
dilapidated structure, because the people that lived in it were so dis- 
tressingly out of order. You remember the man ' all tattered and 
torn,' and 'the maiden all forlorn, who 'milked the cow with the 
crumpled horn.' You see, it is not probable that if they could not 
keep themselves in order, they could their house. 

" Let us imagine that the scientific people had sufficiently devel- 
oped the X-raj's to have made patent X-ray eye-glasses, and we will 
put them on, and take a walk through town that we may study the 
inside as well as the outside of some of these character-graphs we 
call homes. Here we are at a little, oblong, brown house with a 
' lean-to back,' as you call it out here. Perhaps it is some miner's 
home. As we enter we notice there is a kitchengarden on each side 
of the walk ; evidently somebody lives here who prefers potato vines 
to flowers. The front door opens into a large, long room furnished 
with two or three large tables, cupboards, and a big stove ; a good- 
sized pantry opens off one side, and two very small, dark bedrooms 
from another. You see, the room the owner thinks of greatest impor- 
tance is the kitchen ; he is a man that lives and works to eat. He 
does not care where he sits or where he sleeps ; the kitchen is 



AMETHYST, HEXAGONAL SYSTEM. 141 

good enough for him, lie is at home there. He has no books, you 
see, but an almanac, and a few others that tell about his work. On 
the kitchen shelf are no ornaments but a clock ; they are not neces- 
sary things. Nothing is necessary to him but what pertains to 
eating and sleeping and working. You can see him from this char- 
acter-graph, can you not? — a roughly dressed man, anything is good 
enough to work in ; his face is coarse ; he has never looked at 
refined things ; he is not intellectual ; he has never thought it neces- 
sary to feed anything but his stomach. He is physically healthy, 
a reasonably happy animal when he has plenty to eat. 

" Here we are at our second character-graph. This house has 
one more room than the other, and a bed of showy flowers. The 
people here like a place to sit and chat ; they are a little social. 
Then they have a few ornaments here and there, somewhat on the 
calico-and-bright-bead style of decorating ; but they have some ambi- 
tion to have things pleasant. Their books, you will see, are stories 
of other people ; they are not thinkers, but live for something besides 
eating. If we should walk in now we would see kindly faced, com- 
fortable people, who would ask us to stop a while and tell them 
the ' news.' 

" Our next character-graph has a fine front door and door-bell, 
but the side door looks more used so we will go in that way with 
our X-rays. You notice this house has much superficial ornament, 
and is finished in several shades of paint, all of which are in sharp 
contrast as though each was trying to make itself seen. The door 
takes us into a small dining-room, bare, but for one or two chromos, 
a table, and some chairs ; a brightly colored table-cloth is on the 
table, as it won't show the dirt. No matter if the dirt is there, if it ' 
is n't seen, and it is good enough except when there is company. 
The kitchen is small and hot, but it will do 'just to cook in,' the 



AMETHYST, HEXAGONAL SYSTEM. 143 

people think. The sitting-room is small, but ' it does not matter, 
there is a parlor for company.' It is a good place to put the old 
furniture and everything else that is most worn out, or that is not 
good enough for company. There is a ' spare bedroom,' too, small, 
stiff, and uncomfortable, but it is a fine place for the display of 
quilts, which are remarkable for demonstrating a whole plane geome- 
try in dazzling colors. Now we come to tlie room of the house — the 
parlor. It is large, and has evidently absorbed everything that ought 
to have been spread out over the rest of the house ; every piece of 
good furniture, every little pretty thing that is cheering and restful 
for tired eyes to look at, has been stored up where it does no good 
but to show the accumulation of the family possessions, and that is 
just the object, to show all their company how much the}' have, and 
what nice things they have. They would not like it at all, if their 
company should happen to come in the back way, and see all the 
things that were not ' nice,' for they want to appear voxy nice. How 
would they look ? That depends on which door you enter. If it is 
the side door, you will find them in ver}' old clothes, as it does not 
matter, they will say, just to work in, and the}- can save something 
that wa3^ If you go to the front door, they will meet you (after you 
have rung several times) with something ' good ' on, and seat you in 
the parlor, and make you feel that they are very ' nice ' people. 
They would look to be very nice people whether they are or not, 
because they want you to think so anywa}' ; in fact, children, they 
would be just as nice as cotton-backed ribbon with the satin side out. 
" Now we are ready for another character-graph. Which way in ? 
It does not matter, the front door is open and looks hospitable ; the 
hall is large, and pleasantly furnished ; the parlor correspondingly so, 
not pretentious, but restful and homelike. There is a library adjoin- 
ing it, filled with books and flowers ; the books, though not misused, 



144 ^ SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

do not have that painfully new look that suggests ornaments rather 
than ' friends.' Then there is a music room on the other side of the 
parlor, and a cozy corner for a studio, with some choice bits of art 
here and there. Then there is a dining-hall, bright with flowers and 
dainty table furnishings. The kitchen is just as cheery a place, airy 
and comfortable, with boxes of garden herbs and parsley in the 
windows. And what kind of people live here, rich ? — No, not in the 
sense of having a great many dollars or expensive things ; but they 
are rich in beautiful thoughts, — thoughts of the beautiful world out- 
side, which the}' have wrought out in their home for the enjoyment 
of their family and friends. They do not dress beautifully in the 
sense of rich, costly clothing. They prefer to clothe their minds ; 
nevertheless they wear that which becomes them, simply made. 

" Now here is another home that mauj' say is beautiful. The 
architecture is said to be very fine, bi:t it is the thought of the man 
that designed the house, not of the owner. The style is picked up 
from various types, and simply expresses the latest building fad, and 
the dollars that went into it. They appear at every angle. Here we 
are. Inside are elegant parlors, hall ' ways, libraries, music rooms ; 
everything that anybody could possibly want is profusely provided, and 
you can almost imagine that you see a floor-walker coming toward you 
to ask what department you would like to look at next. The house 
is sort of a standing advertisement of the best decorators, household 
furnishers, authors, and artists. And if you saw the owner, you 
might mistake him for a gold dollar on legs. So you see his char- 
acter-graph is a good one. Now take off your X-ray eye-glasses, 
and settle down to your models, remembering that they are your 
character-graphs . ' ' 




U 

:^ 

< 

CO 

o 
f- 
o 
r 

0. 



o 
a 

< 

Q 
O 

aa 

o 
r 



XVI. 
SELEN1TE,M0N0CLIN1C SYSTEM. 

FORn STUDY — RIGHT RHOHBOIDAL PRISH. 

WHO knows what this form is ? " asked Miss Lovechild; " let me 
have your answers quickly." 
" It 's a crooked diamond," said Tod. 

" An oblique parallelogram," said Prudence. 

" A rhomboid," guessed Frank. 

" An oblique rhomboid," added Guy. 

"It is — I don't know what it is," laughed Esther. 

" I think it is a rhombus," said Flossj-. 

" I don't know anything about it," confessed Gus, who never 
tried to answer a question he was not sure of. 

' I expected it would puzzle you," continued Miss Lovechild, " for 
this form and two others are very often confused. This is a right 
rhomboidal prism, and is confused with the rhombohedron sometimes ; 
but a rhombohedron always has six equal rhombic, or diamond-shaped, 
faces, and an oblique rhomboidal prism is one whose every face is a 
rhomboid, which is an oblique, unequal-sided parallelogram. 

" As this drawing is a little puzzling, I have numbered the lines 
so that you will understand my explanation more readily. First draw 
a diagonal between points i and 2, that represents the diagonal 
length of the bottom of your box. Then space your compasses by 
the longest side of your box, and place the needle-point on point i, 
and describe an arc; then on point 2, and describe an arc on the 

S . [ '47 ] 



1^8 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

opposite side of your diagonal. Then change your compasses to the 
length of the shortest side of your box, and place on points i and 2, 
and describe arcs on opposite sides of the diagonal that shall intersect 
the others already drawn. Connect the points of intersection with 
straight lines, and you will have the plain rhomboidal base for your 
box. Then, with the use of your square, draw the rectangular sides 
of the box, being particular that they are exactly -perpendicular to the 
base. Draw the cover in the same manner, taking care that the 
diagonal of the cover lies in the opposite direction, else the cover will 
not fit the box. An inner cardboard lining is made for it on the 
plan of the bonbon box, and two partitions of the same, one dividing 
the box in the center, and one subdividing the division thus made. 
These partitions are held in place by rhomboidal bases that exactly 
fit the spaces made by the partitions. The rectangles i and 2 fold 
together, which are supported by the bases 3 and 4. A handle is 
made for the cover like that on the glove case, and the box is covered 
with leatherette, as a work-box should be as substantial as possible. 
The basket-form is just like the box, and the basket is woven with 
one partition for photographs, and a fancy handle made of three or 
four loops of straw and fastened on the partition by a knot of 
pretty ribbon." 

" Oh what dreadful models to make ! " exclaimed Esther. 

"I don't believe that I ever can do them nicely," said Flossy. 

" It needs nothing at all but some faithful work," replied Miss 
Lovechild. "You ought to be glad that I have given you the oppor- 
tunity of showing me what you are capable of doing. You never 
heard of any one growing great in this world, did you, by doing 
easy things? There would be no credit in that. You are, of course, 
familiar with Dickens's Mark Taply, and remember how he never 
considered it any credit to be cheerful under cheerful circumstances. 



SELENITE, MONOCLINIC SYSTEM. 149 

and was always trying to find some surroundings that would test his 
cheerfulness. So I want you to be Mark Taplys in your work. 
Look for hard work and you will be surprised to find, after a time, 
that there is nothing hard for you to do." 

" But what is the use. Miss Lovechild, in having these careful 
drawings ? Why can't we use patterns, and cut our models out from 
those?" questioned Frank. 

" I do let the smaller grades in school have patterns till they learn 
to use their hands some. I thought j'ou were old enough to work 
without them ; but if you are not, I suppose I can get you some 
patterns, too." 

"Well, I am no baby," said Guy. "I have my drawing nearly 
done while you have been fussing over yours," he said ; " and it 
isn't so awfully hard, either." 

"But really. Miss Lovechild," said Frank, "what is the use in 
our making these drawings till we learn geometry ? " 

" A great many people are fine geometricians, Frank, who could 
not possibly make one of these boxes. They learn how to make the 
drawings, but not how to use them. We should only leani as we 
can make use of what ive learn. It does no good to cram our heads 
with geometrical facts. We cannot even be sure that we know them 
until we have expressed them. This box is just an expression of the 
knowledge of this form, that we have in our heads ; and I never feel 
sure that I have anything in my head until I can take it out and 
look at it. A learned person used to be considered a sort of walking 
dictionary of facts ; but now learning that cannot be materialized is 
very much to be suspected. Imagine your teacher of the piano-forte. 
Flossy, filling your head with all the principles of the art, accus- 
toming your eyes to read the notes and musical signs, and then 
saying that you were ready to make music with 3'our fingers. Or 



SELENITE, MONOCLINIC SYSTEM. 151 

imagine a vocalist as filled with all the various systems of elocution, 
rules of expression and gesture, and then let him attempt to enter- 
tain an audience. How much would he express with an untrained 
voice? How much of a picture could a man produce who had dili- 
gently studied all rules of proportion, form, action, light and shade, 
and artistic composition, who had never handled a palette and brush ? 

'' If a mind is well trained it should be acute in all directions. 
The world often wonders why ' So-and-so ' with such a splendid 
education, did not accomplish more, and is equally surprised that 
somebody else with no education, made so much of himself. The 
fact is that the self-made people, who are such surprises, were obliged 
to gain their knowledge by practise, — they only know what they can 
use, — while the ' well-educated man ' knows very much more than 
he knows how to use, which is as bad as not knowing it at all. It 
is one thing to know something inside of a book, and another to 
know it outside. It may be very instructive to study about the won- 
derful possibilities of heat and water ; but it will be immensely more 
so after you have applied water and heat to an innocent-looking pan 
of dried beans, which you intend to put through the process known 
as boiling. The chances are, if it is your first attempt, that when 
you have finished cooking them, you will be able generously to feed 
a regiment of tramps. The growth of the yeast fungi is a very 
interesting bit of science to read about in somebody's ' Tell-you-all- 
about-it ' cook-book, but it is far more interesting after you have used 
up some two hundred pounds of flour in trying to make one good 
batch of bread. 

" I knew of a couple of well-educated Easterners, interested in 
mineralogy, who, while being shown about a Western ranch, asked 
permission to carry off some specimens of a very beautiful, clear crys- 
talline substance, which they noticed lying in the fields. Their gen- 



152 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

erous guide assured them that they were welcome to all they wished, 
as there was no one to dispute their claim but the cattle, whose 
interests were alimentary rather than mineralogical. They may have 
known about rock salt in books as ' halite,' but they probably did 
not remember it outside of books. Then I once knew of a lawyer 
who probably knew a great deal in books, who attempted a garden, 
but he told a neighbor, in disgust, that his beans all came wp wrong 
end first, so that he had to replant them all. He probably discovered 
that there were some things to be learned outside of books. So 
much for head learning. I saw a girl of fourteen, who had been a 
deaf mute since she was a little child, taught vocalization by feeling 
the vibrations of the voice of her teacher, and then imitating them 
herself. As she learned to speak, her voice had the sound of a 
baby's, it had been so long unused. So I have seen manual work 
done b}^ experienced teachers, that presented the babyish appearance 
of a child's first work, because their hands had remained untrained 
since babyhood. Thus the unequal development of mental ability 
and hand skill is often displayed ; more often than it would be if it 
was regarded as it is, — an educational deformity. Can we call our- 
selves educated while our hands are helpless to materialize the prod- 
ucts of our minds ? We train our eyes, our ears, and our voices, 
yet our hands are left as helpless as a baby's. What a disgrace 
unskilled hands should be ! " 




> 
< 
a. 



a 

z 
m 

Q. 

Q 
Z 

< 

-] 
-] 

S 

< 

o 

o 

03 

o 
r 

u 
=} 

Ij 
o 



XVII. 
ICELAND SPAR, RHOMBOHEDRAL SYSTEM. 

FORM STUDY — OBLIQUE RHOMBOIDAL PRISM. 

DO you remember, class, that I illustrated the square prism by a 
lead crystal, because the lead would often cleave into perfect 
square prisms, though it belonged to the regular system? These 
crystal systems or families are very puzzling sometimes, for they have 
a strong enough resemblance at times, to be brothers when they may 
be only cousins. Now we sometimes find Iceland spar, which is 
rhombohedral, in prisms resembling the oblique rhomboidal. Here is 
one, that, speaking geometrically, we would call a rhomboidal prism, 
but if broken, it would doubtless cleave into rhombohedrons. I am 
going to let you use it to suggest the rhomboidal models you are to 
make to-day. You see each face is a rhomboid instead of a rhomb 
as the rhombohedrons have, and it has four long, oblique parallelo- 
grams for four of its faces, — two wide and two narrow, — and a smaller 
one for each end. I have used the form for a bill file. 

" Now I see you look very much afraid of this, but it is simple 
enough if you will only think so. In the first place, draw what is to 
be one of the broad sides of your prism ; it will correspond with the 
bottom of the work-box, and is the base upon which we will build the 
rest of our drawing. Extend the lines i and 2 to 9, and 3 and 4 to 10. 
Connect these and you have one of the small rhomboidal faces that 
form the end of your prism. Then extend 3 to 5, and 4 to 6, and 
connect, which gives you one long, narrow face of the prism. Space 

[■55] 



ICELAND SPAR, RHOMBOHEDRAL SYSTEM. 1 57 

your compasses %", and draw arcs to intersect at 8, using points 3 
and 5 as centers. Connect 8 with i, which gives the diagonal for 
the other end of the prism. Then with your compasses, find point 7, 
and connect 8 with 7, and 7 with i. Extend this line to point 11, 
and connect with 12, which completes the other long, narrow face of 
your prism. Then extend lines i to 14, and 2 to 12, to points 12 
and 14, and connect, which completes the remaining face of your 
prism. Crease the lines indicated. Then insert paper fasteners in 
points 15, 16, and 17, securing the heads by gluing a strip of cloth 
firmly over the entire surface. The points will project on the 
opposite side on which the bills are to- be filed. The prism is then 
folded together, and glued. To strengthen it, it is best to paste 
small strips of muslin over the corners, then cover the narrow faces 
and ends with gilt or silver, glue loops of ribbon on the back to hang 
it in place, and cover the broad faces with fancy paper. Make the 
same form in heavy pasteboard from the woven form which is this 
little tray, and weave it as you did your first tray, only this is of 
course more difiicult on account of its oblique sides. It is finished 
in the same manner and woven of the split palm leaf." 

"What is this tray to be used for?" asked Prudence. "I 
thought I would like to make mine as a mate for the other tray. 
I planned that larger, you know, for mama's brush and comb, and 
this would be a lovely shape for hair-pins." 

" It was designed for pencils," Miss Lovechild said ; " but you 
can, of course, use it for whatever you wish, though I prefer to 
reserve trays for serving food, and for various domestic purposes, 
which was their primary use. I think we should always adhere to 
the appropriate use of things in spite of popular fads ; and it seems 
to me that it is more appropriate to keep our brushes and combs and 
other toilet articles in drawers or cases where they will be free from 



1 58 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

dvist. These fancy little trays are appropriate and useful for the 
desk or table, for pencils, scissors, knives, or any little articles that 
we may wish to have conveniently ready for use. Always employ 
reason in regard to the use of any article, and you will not use it 
inappropriately. You remember in our talk about true ornamentation, 
we found that there is much which is called ornament that is not 
such. So there is a true or appropriate use for every article. 

" There would be none of that cheap art called decorative, if the 
appropriate use of articles was studied, and we would be spared these 
epidemics of household decoration, that have raged for dififerent 
periods, as, for instance, one winter everybody who indulged in this 
kind of ' art,' must have decorated dust-pans tied up with a bow of 
ribbon and hung in the parlor. Another time fire-shovels were a 
similar favorite, with a dauby sketch in the shovel, a gilded handle, 
and ever-present bow of ribbon. Then bread toasters had a cor- 
responding da}^ for holding letters, being decorated with ribbon 
interwoven in the wires ; then the cow stable was robbed of its 
three-legged mil king-stool, which, with a decorated top and gilded 
legs, with bow on one, walked into the parlor. Then wooden spoons 
with decorated bowls were a similar fad. In fact, it is hard to think 
of any common domestic utensil that has not figured in decorative art. 

" What is the harm ? you ask. — It dulls the sensibilities to the 
appropriate use of things. Look at the ridiculousness of putting a 
beautiful flower in your dust-pan, and laying it on your parlor table! 
Appl}' your test for true ornament here. What would it express? — 
Nothing in the natural course of reasoning, but that you had swept 
up a flower that was destined for the ash barrel. How about the 
appropriateness of landscapes in fire-shovels ? Then what is the 
analogy between toast and letters ? or what appropriate thought is 
suggested by seeing a milking-stool in a parlor? 




H 
< 

-J 

03 



H 
H 

Z 

:^ 

Q 

z 

<: 

F- 
Z 

D 
O 

C 

< 

a 
z 

u 
-] 
< 

z 

o 

Q 
U 

r 
< 
o 

u 
o 

o 
a 

a 

c 
o 
r 



XVIII. 
IRON AND GARNET, REGULAR SYSTEM. 

FORH STUDY— THE RHOHBIC DODECAHEDRON. 

YOU don't have any balls in minerals, do j^ou'. Miss Lovechild?" 
queried Guy. 
" Not as a perfect geometric form," she replied. " The rhom- 
bic dodecahedron is the nearest approach to that. You ma}^ look in 
the cabinet and see what you can find." 

"Here is an ugly looking black thing that is almost a ball," 
said Guy. " It looks as though its sides had tried to make diamonds 
and could not." 

" That is very beautiful, though," said Miss Lovechild, " in spite 
of your unappreciative description. It looks like ebony, and is won- 
derfully perfect as crystals go. Wait till you make a dodecahedron 
as perfect as this yourself, Master Guy, before you criticize Mother 
Nature. And what have you found, Esther ? " 

" Some pretty little wine-colored glass balls," she replied. 

" Look at them under the glass and see if they are really quite 
balls," Miss Lovechild said. 

" Oh how pretty ! Every side is a cute little diamond. It is 
just like that black thing that Guy has." 

" Yes, it is garnet, and has fallen out of this piece of gneiss. 
Here you see are others like them, and that dodecahedron of Guy's 
is another form of iron. We often speak of the yearly cycle, or 
circle, — an imaginary division of time. As it takes just twelve 

[i6i] 



IRON AND GARNET, REGULAR SYSTEM. 163 

months to make this ' circle of the year,' let us imagine the year as 
a dodecahedron of time, and use this form as a calendar mount, to 
illustrate the thought. Each rhombic face represents a month, you 
see, and each should' be of a different color, with three or four silver 
and gilt rhombs to give variety. So they will each have to be sepa- 
rately drawn, and cut with narrow margins for gluing together. 
When you join them, glue four together so that their acute angles 
meet. Then glue a rhomb in each of the obtuse angles thus made, 
and unite with another four rhombs, that have been united at their 
acute angles. None of their angles are quite acute, I know, but I 
mean the more acute. 

" The form for the basket is easier made in one piece, arranging 
the rhombic faces as I have in this drawing. The rhombic basket is 
for holding a ball of knitting yarn or crocheting cotton, so that it 
can roll on the floor, or anywhere, without injuring the yarn. It is 
made in two parts, consisting of eight rhombic faces, as when the 
two sides of the basket are slipped together, it is necessary that they 
overlap in order to be secure. Select two different shades of this 
narrow, straw tape, and allow thirty-six strands for each half of the 
basket, eighteen of each color. Suppose your colors are bronze and 
dark green, like this. You would iirst pin nine of the dark green 
strands in place, bending them around the form over four of the 
rhombic faces ; then pin nine strands of the bronze in place, parallel 
to those on the opposite side. Then, in the opposite direction, weave 
in your woof strands, weaving the green woof strands into the bronze 
warp strands and vice versa. You can weave any design you think 
pretty. 

'' I have woven mine so that each end presents two rhombic faces 
in the plain bronze, two in plain green, two having a figured center 
of green, and two having a figured center of bronze. It will appear 



164 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

a little puzzling to you at first, but you will soon catcli the idea as 
you study it. Its success will depend on the nicety v/ith which you 
draw the strands around the form so that the shape will be preserved 
perfectly, and the weaving must be absolutely exact so there is no 
space left between the strands. The edges are finished by simply 
turning back the straw and weaving in on the under side. If j^ou 
wish, the two parts of the basket can be fastened together by ribbons, 
but it is not necessary, as they will keep their place, if well woven." 

" What color shall I take for my basket ? " inquired Flossy. 

" Any one 3^ou please, if it is appropriate to roll on the floor, as 
knitting balls are very apt to do," said Miss Lovechild. 

" This white and light blue would look so pretty," said Flossy, 
" but I suppose that you would say that it would not be at all 
appropriate." 

" Think how pretty it would appear after rolling around in the 
dust for a few weeks," suggested Miss Lovechild ; " nothing can be 
pretty, you know, if it is not pretty for the use for which it is 
intended. Suppose we take an out-of-door color lesson. What colors 
were we given to walk on ? — Brown and green in the summer when 
the sun is high and the dust flies ; and in winter when there is much 
cloud and the sun is low, we are cheered by the brightness of the 
snow. It is only given us to walk on, however, when Mother Nature 
has stopped working, and the wind has swept her floors, and Jack 
Frost has hardened them, so her white carpet can be kept spotlessly 
clean. I think after an unusually sunny winter's day, we are all 
thankful that she changes for a dark carpet when spring comes ; for 
then our ej^es are protected from too strong lights, by the green 
scenes of the shrubbery, whose value we realize when we go sail- 
ing on the water, and our eyes are surrounded b}' a glare of light 
above and below. 



IRON AND GARNET, REGULAR SYSTEM. 165 

" Nature's business dress always shades on the browns, greens, 
and grays, singly or in mixtures, touched up here and there, of 
course, by the bits of color given the flowers. Even our sky light is 
softened by the tint of blue. Imagine a glaring white sky, a scarlet 
ground, light blue tree trunks, with pink foliage ! Dear, dear, it 
makes my eyes ache to think of it ! In fact they would feel as they 
sometimes do in the schoolroom, when one girl wears bright pink, 
another Turkey red, and some others near by will be in blue, yellow, 
and green effects. If it were not for the browns and grays on the 
boys' side of the i-oom, I should fear for my eyes. This does not 
apply to my little school here, for your clothes are always in taste, 
but in the large, public schools of the cities, we see color combina- 
tions as I have described. Colors are pretty, of course, if used as 
Nature uses them ; her flowers, you know, are set in dark leaves. 
How pretty would a red rose look if its bush was covered with pink, 
yellow, and blue leaves ? In nature we never see masses of color 
unrelieved by subdued colors; nor do' we see mixtures of several 
different brilliant colors. 

"It is especially poor taste, if we are to be seen in any public 
place or gathering where many people are to be present, to wear any 
striking color, as it is extremely disagreeable for those who wish 
to center their attention on the speaker, to be obliged to look over 
or between variously bright-colored costumes and hats, which often 
totally eclipse the speaker. Audiences sometimes present the appear- 
ance of a brightly colored patchwork quilt. True gentlewomen, and 
the girls who make them, will not wish to be seen by their clothing, 
unless they consider their clothing of more value than themselves. 
So select the color for a costume, that a stranger in describing you, 
would ask, ' Who was that intelligent-faced girl ? ' rather than '• Who 
was that girl in the red dress ? ' 



l66 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

" The daintj' pink arbutus looks doubly sweet for the rough, 
brown dress of its leaves. Absence of all color in nature is as disa- 
greeable as too much color, and denotes death, so there are places 
Avhere nature is generous with her colors, as out on the barren brown 
prairie, and up here in the gray, rugged Rockies, where there is 
scarcely a bit of foliage to relieve the eyes. Here she has put her 
brightest colors. Those on the prairies are not as bright as those on 
the mountains, and those on the lower mountains are not as brilliant 
as those on the higher, where there are fewer trees ; and up and 
above timber lines where there is nothing but gray rock and snow- 
banks, she has put her treasures of color in the flowers, — the most 
brilliant scarlets, crimsons, purples, and golds, everything to warm 
and cheer where there is nothing else. One can almost warm his 
hands on the flame-like petals of the painters' brush. Follow nature's 
suggestions in 3'our coloring, and you cannot go far astray." 




)£ 

o 

a. 

a 
z 

< 

-I 

< 

u 

z 

o 
o 



XIX. 

CALCITE, RHOMBOHEDRAL SYSTEM. 

FORM STUDY — THE CONE. 

nRE not these little cones of white spar, or dog-tooth spar, beauti- 
ful ? They appear like cones, yet are really like pyramids in 
structure. I am going to have you tell me what to make with 
them. I am not going to know anything. You are all to be my 
teachers, and tell me what form this suggests to you that is useful 
and ornamental. I have my cardboard all ready, what shall I make, 
please ? " asked Miss Lovechild. 

" O you do not really mean that we must tell you something to 
make, do you ? " questioned Flossy. 

"Certainly," replied Miss Lovechild, "haven't you heads, and 
brains inside of them ? You know this work was not given you to 
develop other people's brains, but your own. Now I am ready. Who 
will tell me the first thing to do ? " 

"Well," said Guy, "I know you can make a cone out of the 
third part of a circle, but I don't know what use you can make 
of it." 

" Candy cornucopia," suggested Esther. 

"But that wouldn't be an^^thing new," said the double T's ; "I 
have seen cornucopias ever since I have seen daylight." 

" I know," said Prudence, " we can make a triple cone out of one 
circle." 

" But what shall we do with it after it is made ? " persisted Guy. 
9 [169 J 



170 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

"O hang it underneath a hanging lamp for matches," said 
Prudence. 

" Humph, the fire insurance companies would be after you, if 
you kept your matches in a pasteboard match-safe," remarked Tod. 

''Well then let's make it of sandpaper," said Flossy. 

" That would n't do," said Prudence, " because when it is made 
out of one circle, both sides of the paper show, and only one side is 
sanded." 

" I have it," said Frank, " make it out of celluloid." 

" That would never do," put in Gus, " because it is explosive." 

" I have an idea," said Guy ; " we will make it of mica. Miss 
Lovechild had some left over from her models, didn't you?" asked 
Guy, turning to Miss Lovechild ; " and when it is split very thin, it 
bends easily." 

" Anyway, we don't care if it is hard," laughed Prudence, " for 
our pupil can do ' most anything." 

"Very well, but what shall I do first, please?" asked Miss 
Lovechild. 

" Take your compass and draw a circle on your mica, with a 
four-inch radius," directed Guy. 

" But, if you please," interrupted Miss Lovechild, "it is hard to 
find such a large piece of mica, and it will not take a pencil mark 
after it is found." 

"Oh dear! I never thought of that," said Guy. "I know, 
though, what you can do. Take a smaller radius, and scratch a line 
with the needle-point of your compass, instead of drawing it with 
your pencil." 

" Very well, now I have done what you say ; what next ? " 

" Cut your circle out," said Prudence, " and make one cut to the 
center from the circumference ; turn each side back to form a cone, 



CALCITE, RHOMBOHEDRAL SYSTEM. 171 

leaving space enough in the center to form another." And the 
teacher began obediently her appointed work. 

"But how am I to get them all equal?" inquired Miss 
Lovechild. 

" I '11 tell you," said Guy ; " scratch off your circle into thirds 
first, then slice one third of the pie to the center, fold back a third 
on either side to the center, and bend the middle third, into another." 
The idea of a pie was suggested by the shape of the section. 

"But how shall I hold them in place?" asked Miss Lovechild. 

" Punch holes with the point of your compass, and weave ribbon 
through," suggested Prudence. 

" Yes, that is a very good idea, and the model is quite daint3^ 
Now do you not think that it is fun to think something out for 
yourself? Tell me how to make the basket, now." 

" I like to weave, may I tell ? " said Esther. 

" Certainly, any one may tell, for you are all my teachers," replied 
Miss Lovechild. 

" I thought a cone-shaped pocket for paper and twine, would be 
nice. We could weave a plain cone first with split palm leaf, and 
then put in a sort of envelope partition in the center for the twine," 
said Esther. 

" But how would you weave the partition ? " queried Guy. 

" I don't know," Esther replied ; " only I know I want one." 

" I know," said Prudence ; " it would have to be cone shaped to 
fit in the basket. We can cut a plain cone from pasteboard, and 
then interlace the palm leaf strips over it, diagonally on both sides, 
beginning at the vertex just as we did for the pyramidal scrap- 
basket; then slip the cardboard out, and it will be just like an 
envelope. That is Esther's idea, isn't it? Only she needed help to 
think it out." , 



CALCITE, RHOMBOHEDRAL SYSTEM. 173 

" Well, I don't care what j^ou call it," said Esther, good-naturedly, 
" as long as you have done it. I suppose I am lazy." 

" Your idea is a good one, at any rate," Miss Lovechild said, 
smiling. " I always insisted, you know, that the East, West, North, 
and South ought to help each other out by combining ideas, thus 
forming a complete country, bound together by mutual interests." 

" I would like to know anyway," said Esther, " why Yankees are 
said to invent so many things." 

" I do not know, Esther, unless it is that they are lazy, too, as 
3^ou sa}' 3^ou are, when it comes to doing hand work. Ever since 
the ' hands ' and ' heads ' of society were separated, you know, the 
hands became servants, and so hand work became associated with the 
idea of service which an ideal Yankee most thoroughly detests. He 
is perfectly willing, however, to stand in a mechanics' shop or a dirty 
factory all day, running machines. His objection is to being ' run ' 
himself. It is against his principles to recognize anything like a 
peasantry. To him, 'everybody' is just as good as 'everybody' else, 
■providing he is his own 'boss.' So disagreeable is the idea of service 
to them, that Yankee girls will go into factories and do doubly hard 
work rather than work out in an easy place in a household. A 
typical Yankee is always willing to spend twice the time in thinking 
up some contrivance to do his work for him that it would take to 
do it by hand, that he may have the satisfaction of simph* turn- 
ing a crank or pressing a button to make his work do itself. Then, 
too, he is always in a hurry ; he can never take time to do any- 
thing. It is surprising that he can find time to live, in fact, he does 
not live in the fullest sense of the term. More properly speaking, 
he exists — is kept running himself by his numerous machines, which 
do everything for him, till one sometimes wonders that he can even 
take time to live by machinery. Some verses from an old school 



174 . A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

speaker, very accurately describe this human phenomenon, called a 
Yankee boy. I will repeat two of them for you : — 

" By his genius and jack-knife driven, 

Erelong he ' 11 solve you any problem given ; 

Make any jimcrack, musical or mute, — 

A plow, a couch, an organ, or a flute ; 
Make you a locomotive or a clock. 
Cut a canal or build a floating dock. 
Or lead forth beauty from a marble block ; — 

Make anything, in short, of sea or shore, 

From a child's rattle to a seventy-four ; — 
Make it, said I? — Ay, when he undertakes it, 
He'll make the thing and the machine that makes it. 

"And when the thing is made, — whether it be 
To move on earth, in air, or on the sea ; 

Whether on water, o'er the waves to glide, 

Or upon land to roll, revolve, or slide ; 
Whether to whirl or jar, to strike or ring. 
Whether it be a piston or a spring. 

Wheel, pulley, tube sonorous, wood or brass, 

The thing designed shall surely' come to pass ; 
For, when his hand 's upon it, you may know 
That there is go in it, and he'll make it go." 




< 

u 
-J 

H 
f- 
O 
CO 

Q 

z 

> 

o 

tu 
-I 

H 
H 
O 

oa 

< 

5 

Q 

z 

3 
> 



XX. 
A STALACTITE. 

FORM STUDY— THE CYLINDER. 

HERE we are, on next to our very last model. What shall it 
be ? " inquired Miss Lovechild. " I have chosen this piece of a 
stalactite," she continued. " But there is no such thing as a 
cylindrical crystal, or conical crystal, but minerals sometimes aggre- 
gate or form by the action of water, iii these shapes. How would it 
do to make a cylindrical bottle-case from this form ? It would be 
very serviceable, would it not, to protect bottles from breakage while 
traveling, or to make them look more presentable for our toilet-tables ? 
Here is the one I have made. It is simply two cylinders with pro- 
jecting ends, one , smaller than the other, the outer covered with 
leatherette, and the inner covered with gilt or silver, like the ends. 
The drawing consists of these two bands, with teeth-shaped margins 
on one side, which are glued to the circular ends and then covered. 
The woven companion form is a covered glass bottle. This woven 
covering prevents breakages as much as the pasteboard covering of 
the bottle-case. I chose a cylindrical cologne bottle for mine, in order 
to harmonize with our model form. Six strands of palm leaf are 
crossed over the bottom and drawn up on the sides, being held in 
place by an elastic band. The sides are woven with split palm leaf, 
which is drawn together as closely as possible. The weaving is 
started by slipping a piece of the palm leaf under a warp strand 
where it is bent up to form the sides of the bottle, and then weaving, 

['77] 



A STALACTITE. I 79 

as on the sides of the boxes, to the center of the bottle, where it is 
pretty to weave a band of some contrasting color. The neck of the 
bottle is finished by binding over and over with a piece of the split 
straw, and then tying a piece of ribbon around it. The space between 
the shoulders of the bottle and the neck, is left unwoven, the warp 
strands making pretty open work." 

" That is very pretty," said Flossy. " I am going to make some 
like it for Christmas presents, if I can find suitable material at 
home." 

"That's something I hadn't thought of either," said Prudence. 
" What shall we do for materials when we get home ? " 

" I can tell you where you can obtain materials," replied Miss 
Lovechild ; " but I would much rather have you utilize whatever 
materials you have at hand. Esther I know can obtain beautiful 
palmetto near her home, which is just as good as the palm leaf for 
many things. You can obtain pasteboards from the cast-off boxes of 
shops, and pretty papers can be bought at reasonable prices from any 
bookbindery or printing-office. You can always find some materials 
wherever you are." 

" What would you work with if you lived in Greenland ? " 
asked Guy. 

" I would cut up strips of skins and weave them together, if I 
could find nothing better," replied Miss Lovechild ; " they would at 
least make strong baskets. In southern Africa the, scales of fish are 
used to make very pretty ornaments. There is always something 
everywhere." 

" I don't see what we Western boys can find," said Tod. 

" You can rip up your old straw hats if you can do no better," 
said Miss Lovechild. " They make excellent material if the hat braid 
is white. You have only to rip them up and cover with hot water 



I So - A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

for a few minutes, then take out and dry. When half dry, iron with 
a hot iron, and the straw will look as fresh as new ; but you do not 
have to confine yourself to the weaving of straw, reeds and willows 
can be very prettily used, and grasses make very pretty material by 
plaiting them together in long strands When you are puzzled to 
know what to use, put on your thinking cap, and look around you. 
There is hardly anything that cannot be utilized for weaving. Weav- 
ing is one of the oldest arts. 

" The ancient Britons Avere noted for their weaving, and the 
Romans considered their woven works of sufficient value to exhibit 
them in their triumphal procession, on their return from conquering 
the Britons. They wove their boats, their houses, their baskets, and 
even the cages for their captives taken in battle, and later they wove 
their carriages, as well as their clothes. The ancient Egyptians also 
wove baskets and cloth, and made their houses by binding together 
the reeds of the river banks, out of which they also wove their boats 
and covered them with pitch to make them water-tight. Do you not 
remember the bab}^ commander that sailed upon the Nile in such a 
boat? Many have been the fugitives that have been lowered over the 
walls of ancient cities in great baskets, and so escaped. History 
might have been very different had it not been for the art of weav- 
ing. The old warriors even made their armor of finely woven shields. 
East, west, north, or south, wherever you go, the rich and poor are 
alike dependent ijpon this art of weaving. It makes the fisherman's 
boats and nets, as well as baskets, and the dainty draperies and car- 
pets of the wealthy home. It makes alike the straw matting and the 
Persian rug. The peasant's homespun, and the delicate lace of the 
society belle, the rich damask and the coarse dish towel. It is an 
art that no material can defy ; it weaves the iron cable that supports 
bridges, as it weaves the fancy silk used for finest embroideries ; it 



A STALACTITE. l8l 

weaves the wire-netting for screens, the wire-springs for beds, the 
iron dish-cleaner, the sieve for flour, and the seats of chairs, and 
even makes entire sets of furniture. As you study what the art of 
weaving has done, you will never be without suggestions what to 
make. Of all arts it is the art that belongs to women. The very 
word ' wife ' comes from the old Saxon word meaning ' weaver,' in 
connection with which Ruskin brings out the beautiful thought that 
every woman must be a ' house-weaver ' or a ' house-moth ' — weav- 
ing men's fortunes or destroying them. This is just as true to-day 
as it was when the Saxons coined the word, although the spindle 
and distaff have been modernized. You remember that among the 
chief virtues of the perfect woman mentioned in Proverbs, were 
these : ' She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold 
the distaff. She stretcheth out her hand to the poor ; yea, she 
reacheth forth her hands to the needy. . . . She maketh herself 
coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple. Her husband 
is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land. 
She maketh fine linen, and selleth it ; and delivereth girdles unto 
the merchant. . . . She looketh well to the ways of her household, 
and eateth not the bread of idleness.' 

" Skilful hands were an honor then, and manual work was no 
disgrace. The modern American woman is apt to think herself a 
great improvement on the old-fashioned ideals, who could be content 
with the well-doing of the homely virtues. But let me transpose her 
now with the ideal of Proverbs, that we may see how they compare. 
She layeth her foot on the bicycle pedal, and her hands hold the bar. 
She stretcheth out her hand after politics ; yea, she reacheth forth 
her hands after office. She maketh herself coverings like the men, 
and weareth bloomers to walk in. She readeth Greek at sight, and 
teacheth it, and delivereth lectures unto the people. She forgetteth 



1 82 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

well the ways of her household, and eateth the bread of bakers. Her 
husband is known in the clubs, and hath dyspepsia worse than 
other men.' 

" You look so shocked, girls, I shall have to stop, and I do not 
wonder I hope j^ou will be shocked at the reality as well. Do not 
be afraid to grow up into the sweet, old-fashioned ideal of womanhood. 
There is more grace in using . the , spindle and distaff than in riding 
a wheel ; and more joy in stretching out womanly hands to help the 
poor, than in reaching them up for political honors. Just as well 
wait for j^our Greek till you are thoroughly at home with the best 
English literature, and then you won 't care for it ; besides, if you are 
all you should be in your home, you will not have time for both, 
and husbands prefer English to Greek for every-day wear. And don't 
stretch out your hands after politics unless you prefer them to your 
husbands' society. They will find all the politics they want, together 
with other masculine accomplishments, away from home, and will 
prefer a home and wife to a club and feminine politician. Let the 
spindle and distaff be the symbol to you, girls, of the happiest life 
3^ou can live, in the happiest place — your home. " 




< 
u. 

Q 

z 

< 

X 

o 

03 

Q 
UJ 
C 
O^ 
O 

u. 

< 
m 
r 
</) 



XXI. 

STILBITE, RHOMBIC SYSTEM. 

FORn STUDY — THE SHEAF. 

nlvL of the crystals that we have used thus far, have had some 
distinct geometrical form ; but I have something here which, 
though a mineral, imitates vegetation in form, and I would like 
to have you tell me what it suggests to you. Here it is," and Miss 
Lovechild held up a specimen of stilbite. 

" A double fan," said Frank. 

" A bow-knot," said Flossy. 

" A sheaf of wheat," added Guy, " or perhaps two tied together 
in the middle." 

" Yes, you have it, Guy," said Miss Lovechild. " It is called the 
' sheaf form ' in crystallography, and as it is shaped something like 
a bow-knot, it makes a capital form for a tie-box, for our pasteboard 
model, and as its plane faces resemble a double fan, as Frank sug- 
gested, I have woven a fan on that plan which is very convenient. 
To make the box, iirst draw a plane square, of whatever size you 
wish, representing the center of the sheaf. Then draw a line through 
the center of this horizontally, and extend on each side the same 
length as the square. Take a radius twice the distance of one side 
of your square, and using each end of the center line as a radius 
center, describe a semicircle ; then with the same radius, changing 
to the angles of your square for centers, draw arcs intersecting the 
semicircle. Connect these points of intersection with the angles of 

[■S5] 






< — ^vr-> 



<;:. 



/\AA/VV\AA/\/\/\ » A 




O-j 



V - \A/V\AAA/\A/V\/ 



^W 




STILBITE, RHOMBIC SYSTEM. 187 

the square, and you have the oiitline of the bottom of 3'our box. 
The top of the cover is the same, except it is one-eighth larger ; the 
sides of both, you see, are simple bands, of sufficient length to reach 
around the base, and creased with a knife, at every corner turned, 
also cut with teeth-like margins for joining to the curved ends. The 
box is prettiest covered with some light paper, and finished by gluing 
ribbon under each edge of the square center of the cover, and draw- 
ing it up the sides and fastening with a bow on top of the cover. 
The form for the fan is the same as that for the plane face of the 
base. The fan consists of flat weaving. The warp strands are cut 
the entire length of the fan and cross the center diagonally. The 
narrow woof is then put in near the center, and woven across, under 
and over, and is drawn into a semicircular form like the plane face 
of the fan. The design can be varied by weaving in one or more 
bands of color." 

"It is very prett}^, but I shall not want to use mine after it is 
made," said Prudence, " it will be so much work to make it. I in- 
tend to lay all m}- models away, in the book-case when I get home, 
as they are too precious to use and wear out." 

"We are going to use our models for Christmas presents," said 
the double T's. 

" I think I shall burn mine," said Esther, " I am ashamed to 
show them." 

" Mine are going to be laid away in a box where nothing will 
hurt them," said Gustave. 

" I am going to put mine in a cabinet where I can look at them, 
and show them to my friends," Flossy stated, with a superior air. 

"Humph! what's the good of having them, if they are just for 
looks?" questioned Guy. "I am going to use mine for just what I 
made them for." 



l88 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

" I am going to sell mine," announced Frank. 

" What ! only two who are going to" do the right thing with their 
summer's work ! " exclaimed Miss Lovechild. " Frank values his for 
what he can sell it for. Esther does not value hers at all, and the 
others, excepting our double T's and Guy, value their work for just 
the work's sake ; thej^ worship the things which their hands have 
made as much as though they were idols of wood and stone. Frank, 
I am afraid, is something of a Ptah worshiper, as his work has no 
value to him but its mone}^ returns ; and the rest of you who are 
going to save your models where they cannot be used or do any 
good, are something like Arachne, the Greek girl, who, as the story 
is told in Mythland, weaved so beautifully that she became vain and 
proud of her work, which she did not use to benefit others, but only 
to show how skilful she was. She even claimed that her work could 
not be rivaled by Minerva herself, who was considered the goddess of 
wisdom, and so of handiwork ; so Minerva punished her for her self- 
ishness b}^ telling her that she should weave for no one but herself, 
after which she began to grow smaller and smaller, as all people do 
spiritually, who work for themselves alone, and her form changed at 
last to the ugly little spider, still spinning and drawing her thread 
from her own body. This was intended to teach the Greek children, 
I suppose, the terrible fate that follows those who work for them- 
selves, alone. 

" The highest mission that can be given anything, is the mission 
of usefulness. All the beauty and brightness are shut out from 
many homes b}- this kind of idol-worship, which lays aside the work 
of our hands, as the miser lays aside his gold — to be looked at, 
and hoarded, instead of blessing with its use. In such homes there 
is usually one room, commonly called ' a parlor,' more properly a 
' lararium ' in which are enshrined the family Lar and Penates, as 



STILBITE, RHOMBIC SYSTEM. 1 89 

verily as thougli these houseliold. gods bore the forms of the ancient 
Roman deities. If any thou-ghtful friends give something to make 
the home bright, it is immediately entombed in this family temple, 
shut away from daylight, except as a sickly hue penetrates the thick 
shades and heavy draperies. Of course, on state da3^s and calling 
times, these shrines are open for the worship of friends and acquaint- 
ances, but are considered as altogether too sacred for every-day use. 
In like manner, such people are very apt to economize their religion 
saving it up to die by. They hoard it as a too sacred thing to use 
in every-day life, but wear it like a black gown one day in the week, 
and on funeral occasions. One is not more inspiring than the 
other." 

" But surely, Miss Lovechild, you would have us careful and 
economical ! " exclaimed Prudence with true New England sentiment. 

"That depends on what you call economy," said Miss Lovechild ; 
■"there is a general impression that to be economical one has onl}- 
to spend as little money as possible, and hoard ever3^thing he 
can get; and as people hoard their religion, which was intended to be 
a daily inspiration, and overlook its most sacred mission of use, so 
every pretty and beautiful thing that comes into their house, is con- 
sidered too sacred for use, and is hoarded — wasted by hoarding. To 
spend and be spent for others is the highest destiny of ever}' created 
thing. Economy is not hoarding, but getting the greatest amount of 
use out of anything. Webster's International Dictionary quotes Swift 
as defining economy as ' the parent of liberty 'and ease ; ' but it is 
more often, by misunderstanding, made the parent of bondage and 
drudgery ; for when families have but the one thought of saving, 
they bind themselves to the service of material things as verih' as 
the heathen bow themselves to idols of wood and stone, the only 
difference being in the shape. 



I go A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

" Many young people have gone into the world for pleasure they 
could not find at home, where some particularly saving member of 
the family was ever reminding them of the household Penates, who 
must not be offended ; in other words, of the carpets that must not 
be walked on, the books that must not be handled, the chairs which 
must not be sat upon, the ornaments which must not be touched, 
the paint that must not be scratched. No place is home where one 
does not feel an ownership in one square inch of the family pos- 
sessions — where there is nothing which can be used, except under 
protest. I once heard of a housekeeper who was so saving and 
careful that her house was too uncomfortably nice to be a home. 
Nothing could be used ; so her boys preferred any other place to the 
one they should have loved best, and went to ruin because they had 
no home. What should have been one, was nothing more than a 
storage for household furnishings, and their mother merely a house- 
keeper — a worse idol-worshiper than any heathen who ever bowed 
down to wood and stone ! 

" When a pretty carpet that might brighten a room is buried in 
old rugs till it has the appearance of a patchwork quilt, in order to 
' save it,' there is a wrong idea of economy, which is to get the most 
good out of a thing ; for then the carpet wears out in the few 
exposed places, and by repeated sweepings and cleanings, till it 
becomes an old carpet, worn out under cover of rugs. It is then 
taken up, the good places cut out, and another generation of rugs 
made to cover a new carpet ! " 

"O but surely, Miss Lovechild," interrupted Prudence, "you 
would not wear a new carpet right out with no rugs ! " 

" Rugs are in place, of course, in front of doors, or a stove, or 
a grate, where there is unusual wear. The object should be to give 
it an even wear. There must be wear on something^ and it is just a 



STILBITE, RHOMBIC SYSTEM. 191 

question as to whether you will take the good of the carpet out in 
an all-over wear, or a wear in spots, then using it for rugs. Some 
homes never possess anything new except what is locked up or under 
cover. Even a dress has to be protected with aprons three deep 
sometimes — an apron to protect the gown, then a 'second-class' apron 
to protect the ' first-class,' and another of third degree to protect that. 
Good gowns must be saved till they are finally so old-fashioned that 
they have to be remodeled to be wearable ; so good furniture is 
stored in the parlor till it becomes musty, and the life of the family 
is actually spent in wearing out old things. All the little, bright, 
pretty things that go to make up the sum total of a happy home, 
are worse than worn out when they rust out from disuse. But bet- 
ter wear out even unnecessarily some carpets, some furniture, some 
books and ornaments, and have an attractive, loving home, than wear 
out our lives, our tempers, and the patience and love of our friends, 
b}' preserving, in an immaculately new state, all our possessions. The 
Father gave us the things of this world to tise ; and in the right use 
of them, we gain a preparation for the new life in the new world. 
If we misuse the beauties of this world, the Father's mental and 
material gifts here, we lose the preparation for the more perfect gifts 
of the next life. 

" The thought I want you to carry away with you is the thought 
of using everything the Father has given you. We used a little 
knowledge, you know, and made our first box ; then we used what 
we gained in the making of that and what we already had, and 
made another; and so our ability grew as we used what we had. If 
the widow who fed Elijah had saved her last bit of oil and wine, she 
would have starved. A pool that saves its waters, stagnates ; moth 
and rust corrupt the hoarded stores. On the other hand, ' the 
liberal soul shall be made fat ; ' ' he that watereth shall be watered 



192 A SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

also himself.' You remember the servant to whom his lord gave 
least — the one talent — felt that he must hoard it because he had 
so little ; so he hid it, and saved it up for his lord's return. Was 
he blessed ? — No, he received a curse instead ; because the lord did 
not want a hoarded store ; he wanted use. The fig tree that hoarded 
its life-giving sap in its own veins instead of turning it into fruit 
for the world, was cursed as the servant who hoarded his talent. 
Through every living thing, are we taught the principle of use. Life 
depends on use ; and we shall be successful in every detail of our 
lives in proportion as we iise every ability, every gift, every opportu- 
nity bestowed upon us ; for the more we use our ability the more we 
shall have to use. The more we spend of one of God's gifts, the more 
returns we shall have to spend. The use of one opportunity makes 
many opportunities. ' There is that maketh himself poor, yet hath 
great riches ; ' ' there is that scattereth, and yet increaseth.' " 

" Then you want us to go home and use what we have made, 
and when they are worn out, make others like them?" inquired 
Prudence. 

" You will make better ones next time, I hope," replied Miss 
Lovechild," and you may think of more convenient ways of making 
the same thing. Never be content with what yoti or any one manu- 
factures, till you are sure it cannot be improved. Where would our 
cars, steamers, sewing-machines, and hundreds of other inventions be, 
if the people of this century had been content with the things of the 
last centur}- ? America would not be America, if it had acted on 
precedent. The people who made this country had found a better 
way of worshiping God than was allowed them b}^ home governments ; 
and besides having the ability to recognize the new and better way, 
they had the courage to live up to it amid dangers and persecutions 
till they had made a great country and a great people. The spirit 



STILBITE, RHOMBIC SYSTEM. 193 

of independent thought that actuated them has repeated itself in the 
succeeding generations of their children, showing itself in the origina- 
tion of great inventions, and freedom of thought, speech, and action, 
that has made America famous. A true American can be content 
with nothing but progression. Now I see the last model is made, and 
I propose that we close our University." 

" O but. Miss Lovechild, we don't want to close it !" exclaimed 
Flossy. " I have been dreading to finish this model, because I knew 
it was the last." 

"O you mustn't look at it as ending a pleasant summer; but 
instead, as a beginning of more like it on the same plan. Perhaps 
we can have another term of our summer school next year, unless 
the chipmunks take up our claim on the University in our absence. 

" But what is this. Flossy? A surprise? How lovely! " exclaimed 
Miss Lovechild, as Flossy passed around to each, large photos set in 
mineral frames. 

" They are some papa made of us while we were at work. I 
didn't know whether you would think the frames ornamental and 
appropriate," replied Flossy; "but I could think of nothing else for 
our rough, little cabin." 

" They are just right, dear ; and we shall all love them, for 
they will suggest what has been, I am sure, a p,leasant summer for 
us all." 

" And you won't think of us as having nothing but corners and 
angles, will you?" asked Guy. "We have bumped off some of them 
this summer, don't you think so ? I feel as though I must be most 
a dodecahedron by this time. I believe another summer would make 
a sphere of me ; I 've had so many rubs," and Gu)- looked so serio- 
comic after his impromptu speech, that the University couldn't resist 
a laugh at his expense. 



194 A. SCHOOL WITHOUT BOOKS. 

Tod tolled his liberty-bell for order, and then Tad and he stood 
up together and unrolled a very mysterious-looking document, and 
proceeded to read : — 

" Know all men by these presents, that I, John Westerly, in 

the State of , in behalf of my sons, Theodore and Thaddeus, for, 

and in consideration of, favors received, paid me b}' Pine Log Univer- 
sity, the receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge, have remised 
released, and forever quit claimed, and by these presents do remise, 
release, and forever quit claim unto the said ' Pine Log University,' 
etc., etc., a certain ledge of rock and University buildings thereon, 
etc., etc." The double T's were interrupted just here by a storm of 
applause. 

"This old cabin, you see, is a part of Twins' claim," they 
explained; "and pa thoiight it too bad that the University shouldn't 
own itself; and he says it shall be fixed up in genuine rustic style 
another summer, if you will all come here again ; " and Tod and 
Tad concluded their remarks with a very gymnastic bow, and placed 
the document in Miss Lovechild's hands. 

"Just think what an honor, children, to be made 'stockholders,' 
as well as students, in your University. We are certainly very 
grateful to our double T's for so generously sharing their claim, and 
now I propose that the North, South, and East cheer the West for 
its kindness and hospitality, always remembering our country's motto 
that we are ' one out of many.' As the cheers died away, the little 
school filed down the trail, singing as they went : — vAV 

' ' Ivand where my fathers died, 
Land of the Pilgrims' pride, 
From every mountainside, 
Let freedom ring." 



019 821 701 3 




J 11. , I isii 1 li __ i^Ly J ■..M'.i^.M _" . J. fi i-i ■■ . Ill i '*\.f Bisj ■■_ ■: ■■« iNai li lin s f **_. 



